The railroad was finally making its way to North Fork. Another couple of weeks and they would be inside the county lines. This brought work to North Fork and surrounding areas. But it seemed there was trouble out at Line Shack Six. Old timer Charlie Breen had been murdered. The railroad paid their employees monthly and it seemed who ever killed Charlie also took his money belt. It was 
said that old Charlie still had the first dollar he ever made and that he didn't trust banks so he kept all his money in his money belt.
I happened to be in town at Micah's office when he heard the news and asked me if I would like to ride along out to the Line Shack Six to check out the situation. We headed straight for Gangling's office. Gangling was in charge of the men and of building the railroad in this area. I didn't know Gangling personally, but I knew him from a business prospective, he bought beef from me to feed his men. I introduced Micah to him. Gangling then proceeded to tell me he laid off some men so he would only need two head of cattle this week. I told him I would have them here by Friday.
"Something on your mind, Marshal" asked Gangling. "Yes.....I'm here about that trouble you had this morning," said Micah. "Yes.....yes.....my vigilantes are still out trying to track down the Indian," said Gangling. "I happen to know John Wing very well," said Micah. "He use to do some farm work for Lucas here, he never had any trouble with him stealing, (Micah turned to me) did you Lucas?" I told them that I hadn't. Gangling mentioned that maybe he never saw anything valuable enough to steal before. "As I understand it.....you caught the Indian going through the old man's money belt" Said Micah. I asked Gangling if he actually saw Johnny kill old man Breen. "When I come upon an Indian.....standing over a dead man who a few moments before I personally paid a month wages to.....I simply add two plus two and apply pressure to the trigger finger. Unfortunately in this case my aims a bit off," said Gangling. Micah told him that he wanted him to resin that shoot on sight order that he gave his men. Gangling told Micah that his camp had its own legal authority and that Micah couldn't tell him what to do. He said he was keeping that order and that was the only way to handle a theft and a murderer like Johnny Wing. Micah and I didn't like his men roaming around our territory with itchy trigger fingers. Gangling said he had 200 men he was responsible for and that quick justice was the only way to keep his men in line. I told him it was nothing but mob rule. He said that "if" they happened to catch Johnny alive
he would get a fair trail as if he was in North Fork.
We were interrupted by a knock on the door. When Gangling saw who it was he stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind him. Micah and I decided to go out and see what was going on. It was the vigilantes that Gangling was telling us about, Jeb and Vale Croton. Jeb was telling gangling that Johnny must have doubled back on his tracks. Jeb also said that Johnny was loosing quite a bit of blood and that he felt it wouldn't be long until he crawled off and die by himself. Vale said that their brother Davey was still on Johnny's track and they came back for fresh horses. I turned to Gangling and asked him who the judge was when his committee tried a man. He said he was. I asked him if his paid hands were the jury. He said they were. I thought this was a pretty convenient kind of law they had around this area. "I want it understood when you start laying tracks in North Fork, your kind of law stops," said Micah. "I never had any other thought," said Gangling. Micah and I then rode off.
Mark and Lou were back at the ranch. Mark was setting at the kitchen table figuring out how to handle his fresh egg business. Mark and his ideas. He decided he wouldn't sell any eggs the first year he would let them hatch. Lou asked him if he was selling cooking hens instead. He said he wouldn't sell cooking chickens because they only bring 12’ clean and that was work. But a chicken all by herself can lay 100 eggs per year. So he figured if he let them hatch instead of makin' money the first year he'd have 100 times the second year. Lou thought it made a lot of sense. Mark told Lou that I would be surprised to have a regular woman's meal when I'd get home. Lou told him if he'd get some eggs she'd make a cake for dessert. He said there should be about a half of a dozen in the roost and if she needed more he could always squeeze a hen or two. "You can do what?" Asked Lou. "Why sure! It's an old farmers trick.....just grab the hen by the legs.....turn it upside down and.....Ahhhhh.....I bet you use to do the same thing all the time in Ireland," said Mark. Lou finally caught on. "I'm gonna turn you upside down young man if you don't stop jokin' and get those eggs." They both laughed and Mark headed out to the barn.
As Mark started to gather the eggs he heard a noise. He knew there was someone else there in the barn with him. As he started to leave there stood Johnny Wing holding a knife on him. He told Mark he needed a horse. "I can't help you Johnny.....there lookin; for ya'!" Johnny told Mark he didn't 
do it. Mark wanted Johnny to give himself up. "They'll kill me! That's the law of the camp. A thief is hung within an hour," said Johnny. "Help!" Yelled Mark as he tried to leave. Johnny stopped him. Again Mark tried to talk Johnny into giving himself up. Johnny said he was taking a horse and Mark was saddling it for him. Lou heard Mark yell and she came running out into the barn. When Lou got to the doorway of the barn she saw Johnny holding a knife on Mark. She picked up the pitch fork and told him to get away from Mark. Johnny being hurt collapsed. Lou patched him up the best she could.
It was dark when I got home. It was nice to see Lou was there and that she had supper ready, not that there's anything wrong with Mark's cookin' but it sure would be a welcoming change. "No offence son," I said to Mark. Lou had stopped by to sign up as a regular egg customer of Mark's and she decided to stay and help with supper. I told her that it was nice of her, but my attention went to Mark. It seemed like something was bothering him. But when I asked him he said there was nothing wrong. As Lou started serving supper she asked what Micah and I had found out at the railroad camp. I told her there was nothing we could do to stop the vigilantes from shooting Johnny Wing on sight. "You think he's guilty Pa?" Asked Mark. "I don't know son, I don't know him that well. But a man can seem one thing and be another," I said. Lou said when Johnny worked for her at the hotel she didn't have any problem with him, and that he seemed honest. She felt if he had wanted to steal, there was ample opportunity for him to do so at that time. I know a railroad camp can be a rough place, especially with all the gambling and drinkin' that goes on, it could lead to trouble. "But it's not right to hang him without a trial Pa." "Oh he'll get a trial son; it's just not the kind you're used to. But a vigilante is accountable for his actions." "Do you mean that Johnny Wing would have to be handed over to that.....Mr. Gangling, same as to a marshal?" Asked Mark. "That's the vigilante law and it's a rightful one I guess," I answered. "Pa.....there's something I want to tell ya'," said Mark. Just then I heard someone call my name. "McCain!" I got up from my chair and picked up my rifle before I opened the door. It was Mr. Gangling. I asked him what he was doing here. "Mr. McCain.....do you know the penalty for harboring a fugitive?" Asked Gangling. "What are you talking about?" I asked Gangling. "We found Johnny Wing hiding in your barn," said Gangling. I asked Mark if he knew Johnny was in the barn. "That's what I was about to tell you Pa." "It was my fault Lucas," said Lou. "Using a woman as an alibi may work on this side of the county line, don't try it in my jurisdiction!" Exclaimed Gangling. He threw three gold coins at me and told me that was my money for the cattle he owed and not to bother bringing anymore. Gangling, Johnny, Croton brother's then rode out. Johnny didn't have a chance. We knew that. The laws in these parts weren't perfect but had to be accepted or else all the 
good laws will go down with the bad. I stood there looking at the money Gangling had thrown me. I had a hunch. I told Mark to ride into town and tell Micah what had happened here and that I would be attending Johnny's trial and to meet me out at the railroad shack.
When I got to the railroad shack the trial had already started. Gangling was surprised to see me; he thought after our discussion he would never see me again. I asked to delay Johnny trial until Micah could get here. He refused. He used the excuse that the rules were immediate trial with sentence promptly carried out. "Didn't I warn you that harboring a wanted killer was a hanging offense?" "That's correct Mr. McCain.....verdict of guilty here could put you swinging at the end of the rope along with this Indian. The law of the camp. Nothing I can do about it!" Said Gangling.
Gangling then locked the door and proceeded with the trial. He first brought Charlie Breen's money belt in as evidence. He said that he saw the money belt in Johnny's hands before he ran away from the scene of the murder. He dumped the money on the table and said that there were about a hundred left instead of $2,000 or more. He said he was going to be brief.....it was an open and shut case as far as he was concerned. I told him he was making a prejudicial statement. He reminded me that he was judge and prosecutor and that the law of the camp was death within an hour for a thief. He said that every month the men receive their pay in gold and how he saw Johnny over the body with the money belt in his hands. As Gangling crossed examined Johnny he denied killing Charlie. Johnny said he ran because Gangling was coming at him with a gun. "Suppose I said you wouldn't hang if you told us where you hid the money. I don't promise you anything, now mind you, I just ask," said Gangling. Just then Johnny grabbed him by the neck. Gangling got free and told his men if he tried that again they were to shoot him. Gangling felt that if anybody else would have killed Charlie they would have taken all the money. The reason Johnny didn't take it all was because he didn't have enough time since Gangling came upon the killing. "Why didn't John Wing cry out when he found the body? 
When I walked up to him pointing a gun at him, why didn't he simply raise his hands? The answers to these questions gentlemen are obvious! I close the case for the camp!" Said Gangling.
Being that the verdict would affect both of us; I was allowed to question Johnny. I had no questions for Johnny, I felt asking him anymore questions would make it worse for both of us. Gangling started to close the trial when I told him I would like to question another witness tho. It was Gangling I wanted to question. He said I should make it short. It came out at the trial that Gangling paid on a sliding scale. Apaches get ten dollars a month because they are like animals. White men get thirty dollars a month. The men from the hills get twenty dollars. He must think the hill men were somewhere between an animal and a white man. He asked what I was driving at. "We're all under the thumb. The pressure never stops for any of us. Not for them, not for me, not for you. The thumb squeezes. The Apache works for a third.....takes the money or he starves in the dessert. The hill men work for less pay because there's no rain. The crops fail the families starve. Thumb squeezing.....always squeezing! You McCain.....the thumbs squeezing to make that mortgage payment. Squeezing to call that loan." These to him were the facts of life. We may not like it but that's the way it is. I asked him if he usually put teeth marks on coins that he used to pay for wages or payment for supplies. "Of course not!" He said. "No I didn't think you did. That's a trick generally used by old timers like Charlie Breen. They identify their money that way just in case. I walked over to the Croton brother's. "Now if you gentlemen will recall.....Mr. Gangling tossed me these three gold coins in payment for some cattle I delivered." "If you'll look at them closely.....you'll see they have the same teeth marks as these coins here on the table in Charlie Breen's money belt," I said as I walked over to the table and picked up the money on the table. Gangling said he often changed gold for the men at the camps. "Two five dollar pieces for a ten," said Gangling....."The explanation is simple enough." I suggested that we look for several thousand dollars in gold with the same marking as the gold I had there. I asked him if that would be enough proof to show that this gold was taken from the body of Charlie Breen. "You're suggesting that you would find a great number of gold pieces with Charlie's marks in my safe?" Asked Gangling. I told him that I was sure that his committee would like to know all the facts before placing judgment on both of us.
Gangling got up from his chair and walked over to his safe. He then opened his safe. When he turned around he had a bag of gold in one hand and a gun in the other. He told me it was my turn to listen. He then had the other men cover me with their weapons. He thought he could bribe the men. But it didn't work. He didn't figure on the type of men they were. He saw them as animals. But these men chose to work when they became desperate.....men who wouldn't steal even to feed their families. Gangling then approached the men and told them that I was what was standing between them and the best land they could get back in the hills. He told them to shoot. I was confident they wouldn't. "Only animals feed their young on the blood of others Gangling. You keep forgetting your talking to human beings." He again gave the order to shoot me. "Shoot! Do you hear?" Shouted Gangling. "Don't you understand? It's yours!" As he showed them the money. "It's yours so your wives and children can stop rooting in the ground!" Yelled Gangling. "Pigs root the ground Gangling, not wives and children. Why do you keep forgetting your talking to men?" I asked. He told them they could stop living like pigs and become men. He then threw the money to the floor and went for his gun. He was going to shoot me. Vale shot Gangling. "According to 
the law.....I'm holding John Gangling guilty of thieving and murder," said Vale. The others agreed. "What made him think that we would take money to kill a man?" Asked Davey. "He understood money.....not men," I said.
The next day when I went out to the hen house Mark was worried because his hens weren't laying. He was loosing money. "There's more to it then that Pa.....last night when I was waitin' for you to come home from that trial, all I could think about was that you could come home. Nothing else seemed important. I didn't care if these hens laid another egg or if the house burned down." "And here you are this morning worrying about a few cents profit and loss," I said. "Pa.....I.....I've been trying to tell myself I have so much to be thankful for but....." He just looked at me and I at him. I then said....."I know I have." We both had a lot to be thankful for.....Having each other was the most important one.
on the show? 'Shivaree''The Hawk'The Patsy''Day of the Hunter''Mail Order Groom''Shotgun Man''Face of Yesterday''The Journey Back''Incident at Line Shack Six''Old Man Running' and 'The Retired Gun.' 
