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Dr Jones said, "They are distant cousins and they were dumped on me by a relative, their names are Jim and Grace Sanders, but that's a long story Scott what have you been up to here?"

Scott looked at the children as they got up on the chairs to have dinner and then looked at Dr Jones and said, "Not much, things have been pretty normal around here, there have been some unruling young teenagers stirring up trouble", "The Sheriff thinks there are about five of them and they have held up a few coaches and wagons in attempts to get money and so far they have avoided the law and made a fair bit of money out of the poor folk in town".

Dr Jones said, "Ah, we have met them from the sounds of things about five mile out of town".

"I am sorry to hear that Dr Jones how much did they get from you, its obvious none of you were hurt in the incident".

Ben said, "They got nothing, nothing at all because of the quick thinking of Dr Jones"!

Scott and Jane Weatherbee stared at Dr Jones in surprise and said together, "What happened"?

After Dr Jones told the story to the Weatherbee's they sat in silence and contemplated the story each in his or her own different way.

"I am so pleased you and the children were not hurt Dr Jones", and Jane nodded her head in agreement.

By this time dinner was finished and the children went to wash up and then they went to bed.

The men helped with the dishes and then retired onto the balcony to enjoy a drink and cigar.

They chatted for another hour and then headed off to bed.

The next morning the children washed and helped Mrs Weatherbee with breakfast. She was so grateful for their help that she gave them both some candy that she had brought the day before off Dr Jones.

Licking the candy sticks the twins walked downtown to see what there was to see.

Dr Jones was setting up the wagon to leave and he walked over to the twins who were looking in a shop window at some toys, he walked straight past them pretending not to see them and brought a wooden plane and a little doll for the twins. When he stepped out of the shop he handed them their new presents and smiled then he said that he wanted to talk to them.

"Children do you want to stay here with Mr and Mrs Weatherbee, they want you to stay with them for a few years" The twins were surprised by this question and were not sure what to say in reply.

Ben said to Dr Jones that they needed to talk in private and then think about it.

"That's fine, I know that you are both running away from something but I don't know what. I don't think its any of my business but I do feel obliged to help you both and since you have both been so good to me and Jessy".

The twins smiled at Dr Jones and then walked away to a children's playground and sat under a tall oak tree to consider these new developments. Finally they agreed to stay for a year at least and see how things went.

They went to find Dr Jones and he was just finishing his packing up for the next visit to the following town.

"Dr Jones", said Ben and Mary, "We will stay and we thank you very kindly for being such a kind person and helping us".

With that Dr Jones wrapped his long firm arms around them both and cuddled them.

He then said, "I really enjoyed your company and part of me was hoping you would say no, but the open road life is no life for two eight year old's. I hope to see you both in around six months time".

The children then patted Jessy and said goodbye.

With that he climbed up on his wagon and slapped Jessy's rump gently with the reins and said, "Goodbye children, c'mon Jessy lets go", and the wagon lurched forward and off he went.

The twins waved and Dr Jones waved back, a tear was in his right eye but he didn't wipe it away until he was out of view for fear of worrying the children. Mary felt a tear in her eye and she looked down on the ground and found another bent six inch nail which she picked up and put in her backpack.

She wiped her eye and said, "We are going to miss Dr Jones", Ben nodded his head, Dr Jones was a good friend, the type you don't want to say goodbye to.

The children went back to the house of Mr and Mrs Weatherbee. A week later it was their ninth birthday and they had a wonderful party with many of the neighbours children gathering for the festivities. Birthdays were a big thing in this little town.

The twins settled down to the normal life of children their own ages and went to school. Things were not easy for the twins but they soon got used to the small town ways of the towns people.

The Weatherbee's looked after the children well and having them there was exactly what they needed as a couple to take the boredom away from life.

Six months passed and Dr Jones did not appear, the townsfolk were worried but never mentioned it in front of the Tucker twins. They had been living with the Weatherbee's for nearly a year now and had settled in well.

One day while the twins were at school an investigator came to town, he said he was working for a man from the town of Virginia and he was looking for two children. He had posters and he was handing them out and asking the townspeople if they new of the children or had ever seen them before.

The Tucker twins had changed much since they left the home, They had their birthdays recently and they were now ten years old. The posters were drawn with pencil and then copied so they were not a good likeness of the children at all. But still Ben and Mary were worried and after many conversations together and many times in town trying to dodge the investigator they decided it was time to move on.

The investigator's name was Bill Rawlings, at the age of 35 he was thinking of settling down, and he had taken a liking to this small town and its friendly citizens. He was a proud man and normally he succeeded in all his cases, proud of his strong six foot frame he was not a man to be put off easily. He took pride in his job and was always keen to close another case, because this would add another notch to his imaginary belt of success. He had been given a lot of money to find the twins and he was to receive much more when he brought them back to his new boss. He decided to make this the town that he lived in while he visited other towns to try and find the twins.

Bill Rawlings was getting close in his hunt for the children and he hadn't moved on yet, Bill had taken a fancy to one of the young ladies, Nancy Williams and couldn't seem to bring himself to leave. Nancy was the daughter of the town Mayor and she was well known and had plenty of young men in town who fancied marrying her, not to mention all the young farm hands who lived on all the neighbouring ranches. Bill fancied his chances of getting Nancy's hand in marriage. She had been friendly in Bill's company and had shown an interest in Bill.

Her father was the Mayor, so Bill would be marrying into a family of status. This suited Bill Rawlings fine.

Both Ben and Mary had filled out and had grown taller in a growing spurt, their faces had grown more mature, rounded from good living as they aged. Bill had seen them a few times and had even stopped them once to ask questions. Ben and Mary were not the only set of male and female twins in town so this added to the confusion for Bill Rawlings.

"Hello children", said Bill eyeing them with curiosity.

"Hello Mister", said Ben and Mary together.

"I see that you are both twins" Bill took the poster out of his pocket and unfolded it and then looked at the twins and back at the poster with an interested look on his face.

"What are your names and where do you live?", asked Bill.

But before Ben or Mary could answer Nancy Williams walked past and she smiled a smile that made Bill's knees go weak.

Bill thought, "She is some gal, and a good looker", and he turned towards her and said, "Well Hello Miss Nancy, what a surprise seeing someone as beautiful as you on this bright and wonderful morning".

Nancy blushed at the right moment, and it had the desired affect on Bill because he continued to talk to Nancy for another five minutes and when he turned around Ben and Mary were gone. He wasn't worried though, he figured that he would catch up with them sometime later. The most important thing on Bills mind at that moment was how and when he would propose to Nancy Williams.

Ben and Mary were getting nervous and they new they had to do something and do it fast.

Bill was going to catch them out, that was obvious.

To be continued…