I'll never forget the day when two private detectives, Captain James Gordon & Lon Perry came to North Fork.  They were looking for Robert Wingate, the son of Aaron Wingate.  Wingate was offering a $2000 reward for anyone who could locate his son.  He lost his wife and son in the Mississippi Riverboat fire of '71.  They found his wife's body, but no sign of his son. 

Robert would be twelve years old by now.  He had a birthmark on his right forearm.  Gordon and Perry concocted a scheme to get the boys of North Fork to gather around the water trough. They would have the boys roll up their shirt sleeves and toss nickels into the water trough.  This way they would have a full view of any birth marks.  Their planned worked.  The kids loved the game.  Mark had just rode into town when Dollar Ten, a friend of Marks, ran over to him and said "That guy over there, he's tossing nickels.  All you gotta do is catch one."  Mark thought he'd try his hand at it too.  Gordon told Mark to roll up his sleeve.  There it was.  There was the birthmark they were looking for.  They didn't care that Mark wasn't Robert.  All they needed was enough proof to convince Wingate.  They were only interested in the reward money.  "That's our boy," said Gordon.  "You mean that's Wingate's boy," said Perry.  They telegraphed Wingate and told him they found Robert.  He took the next stage West.

I was working in the barn when I heard riders approaching the ranch.  There was three riders.  "Howdy!  I'm looking for a man named McCain," said Gordon.  The McCain he was looking for had a boy.  I told them that would be my son Mark.  They started asking me all kinds of questions about Mark.  Wingate ask me if I had been near the Mississippi in '71?  I told him it was more like '73.  "What is this all about mister?"  I asked.  I was sorry to hear about his wife and son.  Just then Mark rode in.  Mark came over to us.  Wingate took a hold of Mark's right arm and pushed up his sleeve.  When he saw the birthmark, he started to weep.  "Robert, Robert, I...I've been looking so long son."  You could see Mark was getting upset.  "He's not your boy, Mr. Wingate."  He wouldn't listen to me.  I grabbed him by the arm and told him I was sorry he lost his son, but it gave him no right to come here and claim my son.  "Ten years I've been looking for him and now I found him."  "He's mine McCain.  I'm your father Robert!"  Mark pulled away from Wingate and came to my side.  "Now that's enough Mr. Wingate!  Now get this straight!  I'm giving you and your friends one minute to get off this ranch!"  I went to reach for my rifle that I had leaning against the barn.  He shot at my hand and told me to keep it away from my rifle.  Just then Wingate took his cane and knocked Perry's gun out of his hand.  "There will be no force used!" Yelled Wingate.  He told me he was willing to fight for Mark.  He would take me to court and prove that Mark is his legally.  Just as Wingate walked away he collapsed  and fell to the ground.  I told Gordon and Perry I would take Wingate into the house and they should go into town and get the doctor.

Doc Burrage checked Wingate and told him he needed to get some rest and quiet.  The Doc felt that the trip from St. Louie and the heat got the best of him.  The Doc didn't want him moved.  I left him know that I didn't want Wingate here.  He was shocked.  He told me to bring him to his office tomorrow.  I told him I'd bring him now.  He wouldn't hear of it.  How could he understand?  He had no idea what was going on. "Tomorrow," he said.  Then left.

Mark and I made supper.  Wingate talked about how lonely it has been for him.  How nice it must be to have a boy to care for.  He told us he had a leather tanning business.  "The sign over the door says, 'Wingate & Son'."  He added the sign just after Robert was born.  He never took it off.  He had no one else.  He has spend years looking for Robert.  He's sure someone had taken him.  Now he felt that he finally found his son.  I didn't want to upset him.  I gave him proof Mark was mine.  I got my Bible out.  It was all there.....date of our wedding, Mark's birth and Margaret's death.  He made me angry when he told me that I could have wrote this information in at anytime.  "Wingate, that's a Bible."  He slammed the Bible shut and said it would never stand up in a court of law.  That was it.  I had it with him.  I went for him.  Mark stepped in between us.  "Pa, Pa."  I looked down at my son and realized how angry I was.  "I'm sorry son."  I told him it was alright and to go on to bed.  "Wingate, when your feeling better, we'll take about it.  Not in front of the boy!"

I went in to say goodnight to my son.  "I'm not his son, am I?"  "No your not his son. Your a part of your mother and me."  Mark couldn't help but feel sorry for him.  He felt he was sick in the head.  I told him, he was sick in the heart. I tried to make him understand what Wingate must have been going thru all these years.  It can be a powerful grief.  I also told him how I would feel if anything would happen to him.  I told him to get ready for bed.  "Pa.  I love you."  "I know you do."   If he only knew just how much he meant to me. It make my heart ache, just the thought of losing him.  I stepped out in to the living room.  I couldn't let him know how concerned I was. Wingate was on his hands and knees praying.  "I never gave up hope of finding him Lord.  Thank you Lord, for returning my son to me."

Gordon and Perry were getting restless.  They wanted their money.  Gordon told Perry he'd talk to Wingate about getting their money.  Perry had a better idea.  "Kill McCain."  If I was out of the way, that would clear the way for Wingate to claim Mark.  Perry wanted to get me to draw on him, he'd kill me and they would get their money. 

We took Wingate to the Doc's.  After that he went to his hotel room.  Gordon and Perry went to see Wingate.  They wanted their money now.  He wasn't giving them a cent until the boy was his.  He would send them the money then, not before.  Gordon liked Perry's idea about getting rid of me.  It was beginning to sound better every minute to him.

I had stopped in to talk to Micah and to see what he knew about all this.  He did have a poster on Wingate's boy.  He heard of Gordon before.  "He's nothing but an ordinary bounty chaser trying to sound legitimate by calling himself a detective.  You be careful Lucas.  They might try anything to get their hands on that reward money."  "Even kill me," I said.  I had to try to talk to Wingate.  I had to make him understand.  I left Micah's office and headed towards the hotel.  Gordon and Perry were out in front.  Perry tried to force me into a fight.  It didn't work.  I headed into the hotel and went straight to Wingate's room.  I asked him to do me a favor.  I told him to pack his things and get out of town.  I told him Gordon and Perry would do anything to get that reward money.  Even kill me and make it easy for him to get Mark.  He thought it ridiculous, he told them no force.  He told me to get out.  "Alright Wingate, I'm going.  But you remember this, if they do gun me down, you may get my boy,  you won't have one happy moment until the day you die because down.....down deep you'll know he's my boy, not yours."

Perry and Gordon were waiting for me when I came out of the hotel.  "You were saying something to me a while back friend, what was it?"   I asked.  "I hear your a bear with that rifle McCain."  "Yeah, I'm a bear."  Just then Wingate came out of the hotel.  He could see what I had been telling him was the truth.  "Alright Sodbuster, show me!"   "Now," shouted Perry.  He drew and I shot him.  Micah came running out of his office.  He saw what had happened.  "Gordon, I'm arresting you for the attempted murder of Lucas McCain."  "It was Perry's idea," said Gordon.  "Why?  He wanted to get my boy, wasn't it?  Wasn't it?"  I grabbed him by the shirt and drug him over to Wingate.  "You knew all along Mark wasn't Wingate's son, didn't ya?  Didn't ya?"   "Wingate was paying $2,000 to find him a son.  Yours was as good as any."   I started to walk away.  Wingate called to me.  He told me how sorry he was.  He wanted his son so bad that he almost got an innocent man killed. "Please forgive me, Mark."  Mark looked up at me.  I winked to let Mark know it was ok. 

We had thought it would be nice to have Mr. Wingate and Dollar Ten out to the ranch for supper before Wingate had to leave for St. Louie.  Mr. Wingate couldn't believe that Dollar Ten was the same boy he had seen earlier in the day.  He sure looked different underneath all that dirt.  "That dirt was the result of honest labor.  Dollar Ten holds more jobs and works harder then most grown men I know."  I told him that Dollar Ten didn't have a family.  He was an orphan.  "Nearly everyone in North Fork has offered him a home, but Dollar Ten likes to be independent."  "That may be so Lucas, but a boy needs somebody."  "Dollar Ten, how'd you  like to come back to St. Louie with me?  I've got a big house and I live all alone.  You could stay with me.  If you'd want to learn the leather tanning business, I could teach ya."  "Well sure!  I'd like that!"  Said Dollar Ten.