He orders Festus to form a posse and go after Pritchard, and he orders Newly to be locked in jail. Judge Franklin is furious at the turn of events. As they are walking back to the jail, Pritchard manages to get away from Newly and ride away on a stolen mare. Jenny refuses to talk with her father, and he leaves dejected. Pritchard convinces Newly to let him out of jail long enough to go talk with Jenny, who is staying with Miss Kitty. Jenny soon finds a wanted poster for her father and realizes her father is an outlaw, and Newly, Kitty, and Festus Haggen knew who her father was. The Deputy is not there, and Pritchard is locked in a cell. The next morning, Jenny goes to the Dodge City Jail looking for Newly. The Judge will not listen to any objections from Deputy O'Brien. When he sees Pritchard and Newly, he orders Newly to immediately lock Pritchard in jail. Judge Franklin has indicted Pritchard at some point in the past. Unfortunately, Judge Alan Franklin is in Dodge from Missouri to fill in while Judge Brooking is away. Pritchard agrees, and they ride back to Dodge. Newly proposes Pritchard return to Dodge with him, spend a couple of days with Jenny, and then surrender to face the charges against him. Since Matt Dillon is out of town, Newly rides to where Jenny was supposed to meet her father and finds Pritchard there. When Jenny tells Kitty and Newly her father's name is Lucas Pritchard, they realize Jenny's father is a wanted outlaw. Since the stage does not go to Slater's Crossing near where her father lives, she had to disembark in Dodge. Jenny tells them her story about coming to meet her father. Kitty and Newly are surprised to see someone so young traveling alone. Newly O'Brien and Kitty Russell meet Jenny when she goes inside the Long Branch Saloon looking for help. The father has written Jenny and asked her to visit him on the ranch he has just purchased. Jenny is only nine (almost ten) years old, and she has traveled to Dodge in the hopes of reuniting with her father. A young girl named Jenny Pritchard arrives in Dodge City on the stagecoach.

Lisa gerritsen