Jake woke up for the third day in a row at Dr. Venables home. His wife had been fussing over him ever since he had been there. She was very nice. Mr. Venables was one lucky man to have such a lovely sweet wife. He looked around the room. It was nicely furnished with not to much furniture. There was the four-poster bed he was sleeping in, the dresser straight across from him with nothing but the wash basin on it, but it did have a mirror attached to it, so that one could see to shave. And then there was a nightstand on each side of the bed each with a lantern on top of it. There was also a truck at the end of the bed. He wasn't sure what was in it for he hadn't been out of bed since he had been here. He had two bruised ribs and a broken leg. The doc had fixed him up quite well and the diagnosis was that he was on the road to recovery.

"Good morning Mr. Fresno," Mrs. Venables interrupted Jake's thoughts. It was a pleasant interruption for he smelt the delicious aroma coming from the tray she carried.

"Good morning, Mrs. Venables. Whatever you got there, sure smells good." He gave her one of his most charming smiles. She couldn't help but smile back at him.

"It's a couple of my famous flapjacks and bacon that you like so well." She sat the tray on his lap as he maneuvered to sit up. He moaned as he moved. Mrs. Venables frowned. She hated to see anybody in pain. "Here you go, now you just sit still and I'll feed ya." Jake did as instructed besides he was still too weak that he didn't feel like feeding himself.

During breakfast Jake asked, "Have you heard anything about those outlaws that the Marshall was bringing to town?"

"No, I'm sorry, I still haven't heard a word. He hasn't brought the outlaws in yet." She saw the despair creep into his face, so she tried to make him feel better by saying, "But that doesn't mean anything, maybe he found the outlaws and they had a shoot out. He killed them all, so he didn't have to come here. Maybe when he gets to where he's going, he'll send a letter letting Sherrif Ramsey know all about it."

He knew she was just trying to cheer him up so he smiled. He didn't really believe her though. He was afraid that something terrible had happened, something terrible to Melissa. As soon as he got well, he would head out to find her. He just prayed that she was alive. And if any of those outlaws were still alive, he was going to make them pay for touching his gal.

Mrs. Venables left Jake to rest after he had eaten all his breakfast. Jake drifted off to sleep thinking about Melissa.

They were laughing up a storm when suddenly there was a thump, and all of a sudden they were thrown to the floor, they were tumbling over and over. God it felt horrible. His whole body was hurting, and he was terrified for Melissa. Where was she? He didn't see her. Panicking his eyes kept searching the compartment for her.