Joan Johnston - Honey and the Hired Hand

"Jack's missing," Honey said. "And I don't have the first clue where to look for him."

"I'll be right over," Angel said.

"What about the baby?"

"I'll bring him. He'll be fine riding in the car while we look for Jack. Don't go anywhere till I get there. I won't be long."

"I'll use the time to call some more of Jack's friends. Maybe they'll have some idea where he is," Honey said.

Angel was as good as her word, and a short while later she drove into the yard. Honey came running out and jumped into the passenger's side of the car.

"Do you have any suggestions where we can start looking?" Angel asked.

"No," Honey said. She bit down on her lower lip to still its tremor. "We might as well start on the Flying Diamond. Maybe he-" Honey stopped herself from saying had an accident; it was a possibility she didn't want to consider. It was almost better believing he had run away.

They searched the Flying Diamond in vain. Jack was nowhere to be found. Honey was getting frantic. It was nearly midnight. Where was her son?

"I don't know where to look from here, except to check whether he might have gone to see Adam at the Lazy S," Honey said at last.

" Dallas told me to stay away from the Lazy S tonight. There's something going on at that corral where your boys practiced roping earlier this spring."

"As I recall, there's a pen for livestock," Honey said, thinking aloud. "So that's where Jesse hid General!"

"What are you talking about?'' Angel asked.

"Last night Jesse stole General."

"What!"

"It's a long story. Anyway, he said he'd put him somewhere safe. I'm betting he meant the pen at that roundup corral on the southern border of the Lazy S. If Dallas told you to stay away from there tonight-"

''-because of Ranger business-''

"-then chances are that's where they both are right now." Honey hissed in a breath of air. "Jack couldn't have suspected…he wouldn't have gone… Jack just couldn't…"

"Jack couldn't what?" Angel asked.

Honey had a terrible feeling of foreboding. "We have to get to that corral," she said. "Hurry!"

" Dallas specifically said to stay away from there," Angel protested.

"Jack's there!" Honey said.

"How do you know?"

"Call it a mother's instinct if you like, but he's there, all right, and he's in trouble! Let's go!"

Jack hadn't liked lying to his mother, but sometimes there were things a man had to do. Protecting his mother was one of those things. So he had told her he was spending the night with a friend and asked if it was all right to spend the following day tubing on the Frio River. In reality, he planned to spend the entire time spying on Jesse Whitelaw.

Jack had grudgingly given Jesse the benefit of the doubt after their talk in the barn. By the end of a day spent working with the hired hand, he had felt a secret admiration for the cowboy. Then he had overheard Jesse on the phone after dinner, making plans to rent a stock trailer.

At first Jack supposed his mother had sold some cattle. When Jesse mentioned something about "restraints for the bull," Jack got suspicious. There was only one bull on the Flying Diamond, and General wasn't for sale. Jack felt sick.

He had secretly been dreaming about what it would be like if Jesse Whitelaw became his stepfather. He had imagined lots of days like the one they had spent together working to repair the corral. Jesse had treated him as an equal. He had respected him as a person. Working with Jesse hadn't been a chore, it had been fun.

Now Jack saw Jesse's behavior as a phony act to lull him and his mother into complacency, so they wouldn't interfere when Jesse stole the one thing of true value left on the Flying Diamond. Jack felt like a fool. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, until there seemed only one course of action open to him. He would catch Jesse Whitelaw red-handed. He would put the deceitful drifter in jail where he would have plenty of time to regret having underestimated a gullible, trusting, thirteen-year-old boy.

Jack had packed an overnight bag and hugged his mom goodbye as though he were spending the night with friends. Instead, he had hidden himself where he could stand guard on the barn. Sure enough, about an hour after his mother left the house with Adam Philips, Jesse Whitelaw had backed a stock trailer up to the barn and let down the ramp.

At first Jack had been tempted to confront the drifter. But even at his age he knew discretion was the better part of valor. He thought about running to the house to call the police, but figured Jesse would be long gone before anyone could block the roads leading from the Flying Diamond.

So while Jesse was in the barn with the bull, Jack had snuck under a tarp lying in the back of the pickup truck pulling the stock trailer. It was all very easy, and Jack was pleased with how clever he had been. Surprisingly, Jesse had taken the bull to the roundup corral on the southern edge of the Lazy S.

Jack knew he ought to go right to his mother with what information he had, but he was afraid she would let Jesse go because of her soppy feelings for the drifter. So while Jesse was unloading the bull into one of the stock pens, Jack left the truck and hid inside a nearby tin-roofed shed, figuring he couldn't go wrong staying with General. Besides, if he left, the bull might be gone by The time he got back with the authorities.

Jack was nearly discovered when Jesse came inside the shed to get hay for the bull. Apparently the theft had been more well thought out than Jack had realized. To Jack's dismay, when Jesse left the shed he dropped a wooden bar across the door. Jack was trapped!

His first instinct was to call out. Fear kept him silent. There was no telling what the drifter would do if he knew he had been found out. Jack remained quiet as the truck drove away. Surely Jesse would return soon. All Jack had to do was wait and be sure he got out of the shed undetected when it was opened again.

Jack had spent a long, uncomfortable night on a pile of prickly hay. He had finally fallen asleep in the wee hours of the morning and only wakened when the sun was high in the sky. He was relieved to see through a knothole in the wooden-sided shed that General was still in the stock pen, but he was also confused. Surely someone should have come to collect the bull by now.

All day long, Jack waited expectantly for Jesse to return. It was late afternoon by the time he realized the exchange would likely be made after dark. He was hot and hungry and thirsty and dearly regretted not having called the police when he had first had an inkling of what Jesse intended.

Jack wondered whether his mother had checked up on him and uncovered his lies. He consoled himself with the thought that she wouldn't really start to worry until after dark. Only the sun had fallen hours ago. Where was she? Why hadn't anybody come looking for him? Where was Jesse? Where was everybody?

Jesse hunkered down in the ravine where Dallas was hidden so he wouldn't be spotted talking to the other Ranger. "Is everything set?" he asked.

"The local police have the entire area covered like a glove," Dallas reassured him.

"I just hope Adam steps into the trap," Jesse said.

Dallas shook his head. "He isn't going to be the one who shows up here tonight. You'll see. I'd stake my life on it."

Jesse arched a disbelieving brow. "You're still sticking by the man, even with all the evidence we have leading to the Lazy S? With all we've discovered about how his ranch toas floundered lately? With everything we know about how bad Adam Philips's finances have gotten over the past year?"

Dallas nodded. "I know Adam. He just can't be involved in something like this. There's got to be another explanation."