That was pretty much the end of things. There followed a few nerve-wracking moments when just about all of us figured that Carlson’s crazy brother would start firing on everyone. But he just dropped the weapon as soon as he’d shot Carlson and then stood on the porch real quiet, with his head bowed and his eyes downcast.

A couple of soldiers rushed up the steps, and one of them picked up the gun and grabbed hold of Mr. Hadley. The other one knelt down and examined Nicholas Carlson for any signs of life. But he was already gone, that was pretty clear to all of us.

“What was Carlson doing here anyway?” I asked Lewis. “Why wasn’t he at his own celebration in town?”

Lewis shook his head.

“I can’t say, Will,” he said. “Maybe he was the kind of man who loves to throw money at folks but doesn’t like having to rub elbows with ’em. Or maybe he knew something was up and wanted to be here in case there was trouble. Truth is, we may never know.”

You might have thought Lorenzo Sawyer would’ve rushed down off the porch to meet us, now that nobody had a gun pointed at his head. For that matter, you might figure I’d have run on into the house to search for Becky. It was the main idea in my head at the time, that’s for sure. But there were still three of Carlson’s men unaccounted for – the one named Stimson, who was somewhere inside holding a gun on Becky and the doctor, and the other two men whose names Carlson had called out a few minutes earlier, Johnson and Matthews. As much as we all wanted to make a move, we all just sort of stood there, Lewis and I, John, Capt. Hunt and the soldiers, Morgan and his men – all of us alert and ready for more shooting.

After a few minutes, though, who should come calmly walking down the road and through this passel of men and horses but Soon Hing and a few of his coolies. And believe it or not, marching along in front of them were Johnson and Matthews, their arms neatly tied to their sides with a couple of those ceremonial black silk cords.

“What the hell...” John said as they approached.

“Soon Hing take Messer Rogers’ advice,” said the old coolie, a broad grin on his wizened little face. “Wing Chun do fine job on these two.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” John said.

“Most probably,” answered Soon, performing a mock bow in front of the big Tennessean.

So now there was only the one man inside to worry about, but he was our greatest concern of all, since he held Becky’s life in his hands. We waited a few more moments, unsure whether we should call out, rush the house or wait for him to make some move. But after a few more moments, the man named Stimson came shuffling out slowly, his hands raised. I guess he was a lot smarter than his boss had been, because he walked out glancing warily at the soldiers and calling “Don’t shoot. I didn’t do nothin’ to ’em. They’re both all right in there.”

I was all primed to rush on in, but Lorenzo, who finally felt safe enough to come on down the steps, met me halfway and grabbed my arm, telling me to stay put for another few minutes.

“There might still be more guards inside,” he said. “We can’t be sure. Let the army do its job, Will. That’s what these men came all the way up here for.”

As I stood there impatiently while a few of the regulars searched the house, Capt. Hunt came over and shook my hand.

“You may not think I remember you, son, but I do,” he said, smiling. “I also remember well the young lady and her late parents. I was deeply aggrieved when the incident with the Apaches occurred out in the desert. Needless to say, it caught us all by surprise, and we did everything we could to rectify the matter. I’m deeply sorry to hear what you’ve been through all these months. Anything I say can never erase the suffering you or Miss Baldwin have endured, but at least it appears that we’ve managed to bring the whole affair to a close, thanks to good fortune and God’s grace.”

Then the captain shook hands with Lewis and John. Lewis, in turn, introduced Hunt to our friend, Lorenzo.

“Captain Hunt,” Lorenzo said, “what you’ve done on behalf of Miss Baldwin and young Will here, has been nothing short of magnanimous.”

Hunt smiled and shook his head.

“It was nothing more than you yourself have done, sir,” he said. “And as for this,” he added, holding out the letter from the governor, “I’m beginning to wonder if it really did us any good. At least we got a response and know that some action will be taken at long last. There also is some correspondence waiting for you at the post office, Mr. Sawyer. I took the liberty of stopping there and asking for it, but they wouldn’t issue the letter to me. It was from the chambers of the territorial supreme court, and I assume its contents will echo the sentiments of Governor Morris.”

“What exactly did the governor say?” Lorenzo asked.

“First and foremost, he issued an order to release Miss Baldwin and to place under house arrest both the superintendent and the members of the governing board, which so far as I know consist of Mr. Carlson alone. The Nevada City sheriff may be in on this too, but all that will be looked into. The presence of army regulars will no doubt be helpful around here for the next few days. The governor further promises to send a team of inspectors within the week to assess the status of this facility, to release those people who were kept here for no medical reasons, and to determine if the safe house should continue operation, though not under the control of its founder, of course.”

We all looked down at the body of Nicolas Carlson, over which one of the soldiers had draped a coat.

“I wonder now which of the two brothers was really the crazy one,” Lewis asked aloud.

“Probably both,” said a voice from behind us. It was Dr. Zeissler, who had just stepped down off the porch and was limping slowly. He was supported by two of the soldiers and had been bandaged around the middle to stop the bleeding.

“You see, my friends, insanity runs in blood lines,” the doctor said, “and I have every reason to suspect that of the two, it was Carlson who actually had the most advanced condition. In the end, it was his brother – the one who had once been committed – who exhibited the greater sense of right and wrong. I’m afraid that kind of moral judgment was by this time beyond the comprehension of Mr. Carlson. He had built his world around the blind emotions of greed, envy and hate, and had nurtured an almost perverse addiction to power. As his world began to crumble around him, so did the last vestiges of sanity and sensibility that had allowed him to carry on in society this long.”

“But, if he was the crazy one,” John asked, “how come nobody knew it?”

“Some people manage to spend their entire lives hovering just outside the boundaries of insanity,” the doctor said, “sometimes coming dangerously close, but never actually crossing over into that dark zone. Not until something or someone comes along and knocks them over the edge.”

“What will you do now?” Lorenzo asked, “after you recover from your wounds, I mean.”

The doctor turned his head and looked back at the front door of the “Safe House,” wincing in pain as he did so.

“Actually,” he told us, “I’d like to stay right here. If the territorial government allows the facility to reopen, and if the inspectors they send here can be convinced that it has the potential to operate as a legitimate asylum, I’d like to start doing what I’ve wanted to do all along. I’d like to begin helping people to recover from this disease of insanity.”

“But, Dr. Zeissler, can you really believe in a cure for the insane?” Lorenzo asked. “Some of the people I saw in there were like animals. Surely there’s nothing you can do for them.”0

“On the contrary,” the doctor said. “I truly believe they can be helped. After all, the medical world has discovered only a small fraction of what we need to know to make the lives of these people more comfortable, more meaningful. I’m confident we will learn a great deal more about such maladies as time passes. But we need to do more than poke and prod them. We need to move beyond the archaic techniques of restraint and bloodletting. And we need to learn how to gaze into their minds and see inside their souls. We must find a way to discover what’s really going on in there. That day will come, I’m sure of it. And when it does, I want to be a part of it. My biggest disappointment has been the fact that I was never really able to help those individuals who were so unfortunate as to be deposited here.”

“But that’s only because you were never really given the means to assist them,” Lewis said. “Besides,” he added, pointing toward the front door, “there’s one person you were able to help right over there, coming out that door.”

Along with the others, I, too, looked toward the front door and saw her at last, after so many long months of separation. Slowly stepping out onto the porch, she paused briefly at the top of the stairs and gazed out with uncertainty at the world around her.

“Of course, Becky Baldwin was never truly insane,” the doctor said, “merely confused and removed from reality for a time. But I suppose in a way you’re right, Mr. Manly. I guess I could consider her to be my first real success here in California. Perhaps when I appeal for the right to continue my work here, she might even be willing to vouch for the effectiveness of her treatment.”

The four of them – Dr. Zeissler, Lorenzo and my dear friends Lewis and John – went on talking as I stood there gazing up at the top of the steps. But the sound of their conversation had gradually faded until now it was little more than a muffled hum in the background. Every last bit of my attention was focused on Becky alone.

I could see confusion and uncertainty in her eyes. Hers was a look I no doubt wore on my own face as well, since I was feeling pretty unsure about what was to come. Now that the moment I’d waited for had come at last, I was suddenly lost as to what I should do other than just stand there. It’s odd, but I can remember what happened next more clearly than I can recall any other event in the course of my entire journey across America. And though it all took place several decades ago, I see it in my mind as though it were happening right here and now:

As she stands there on the porch, a faint breeze tousles her hair, and her body wavers slightly as she ponders her next move. I gaze up at her and she glances around cautiously, unsure whether she should bound down the steps to freedom or retreat back inside the house. She seems older now than when I saw her last, as of course we both are. She also appears tired, weary with life and marked by her ordeal. Her eyes dart about, taking in the view from the top of the stairs, and in them I see a certain wariness, a look of apprehension about what is to come. It is fear, an emotion I once read in another pair of eyes a long time ago.

But now she sees me at last and smiles, hesitantly at first, then full and wide. Dimples form in her cheeks the way I remember them, and her eyes begin to soften with tears. And now, in those eyes I can see a glimmer of hope – hope and love. And I know, more than I’ve ever known before, that the two of us have all we will ever need to travel any road which life puts before us.

The End

And so we come to the end of our online novel. John has included an afterword, explaining more about the split between fact and fiction and revealing where he did his research.

We hoped you enjoyed reading "The Valley of the Shadow."

I am hopeful that the lack of comments here so far is not indicative of everyone having abandoned the novel in the home stretch!

I would be very grateful if some of you would use the occasion of this online novel's conclusion to take a few minutes and provide me with a short summary of your views on the book. Not a book review so much as your thoughts on whether the whole thing held your interest, was consistent in tone, a believable story with believable characters, etc.

Thanks to all of you who stuck with it and I hope you'll continue to seek out and read some of my other writing projects as they surface over the course of years to come.

John Soennichsen

John, I have really enjoyed this book. However, I would probably never start another on-line book! Because it did peak my interest - an interest in the history and daily lives of our pioneers - I continued to read almost weekly. The characters and situations have been interesting and believable. But, if this book had been in my hands I would have been finished in a couple of days! Best wishes on your future writing endeavors.