“Where did you come from?” asked Victoria Barkley.

“Madam, allow me to introduce myself. I am Doctor Miguelito Loveless, and though you may find it hard to believe, I come from another world, another earth in fact, a parallel earth beyond that painting. I am a fugitive, a misunderstood scientist on the run from my world. I committed a number of crimes there, but mainly because I never found true love … until now.”

Mrs Barkley had taken his breath away. It would not be untrue to say that Dr Loveless was a breath of fresh air too. His cute sly charm was a change from the large rugged men she had surrounded herself with in the past. Her late husband had turned out to be an unfaithful spouse. She had never held this against his son Heath, who had been born out of wedlock, but had welcomed and defended the young man many times against the bigotry of people in the Big Valley. Here was a small and endearing man who seemed, unlike Tom Barkley, to be honest about his past iniquities.

Since Jarrod, Nick and Audra had not seen Miguelito’s bizarre and almost unbelievable entry to her living room, Victoria never mentioned it to them as she began a whirlwind courtship with Dr Loveless in the weeks ahead. In little time at all, Dr Loveless proposed to Victoria, who accepted.

One day, they were all talking together in the living room, when two men suddenly appeared in front of the same landscape portrait.

“Where on earth did you come from?” asked Nick.

“From another earth actually,” said Artemus Gordon.

“It took us a while to search your hideout unsuccessfully for you,” said James West, “But then I noticed the picture on the wall, and I guessed that you might have used it to flee here. We followed you once before, and we will again. You’re under arrest in the name of President Grant.”

“Well at the risk of pointing out the obvious, the president of this country is not named Grant,” said Jarrod, “I myself uncovered a plot to kill Abraham Lincoln. Now it seems, that my brother and I will have to contend with two false government officials.”

Nick and Jarrod had clearly not understood the concept of travel to parallel earths through paintings.

“Take me. Just don’t hurt my fiancé!” said Dr Loveless, knowing that such a speech would impress the Barkleys.

James West was a fit and able fighter, but Artemus Gordon had relied on his prowess for years, contributing less to their fights than West, using his skills at disguise and science as his main contributions. Jarrod Barkley, though the more intelligent of the two brothers, had been raised on the Barkley ranch, and had lost physical contacts as infrequently as Nick. The lengthy punch-up that took place in the Barkley living room was close, but ultimately Nick and Jarrod won.

The brothers tied up West and Gordon and made plans to fetch the sheriff the next morning.

“We’ll watch them, Mother,” said Nick.

“We might as well go to bed then,” said Victoria, “Miguelito, you can still sleep in the guest room. My sons won’t let these men get anywhere near you.”

“Thank you,” said Dr Loveless, “James West and Artemus Gordon make for rather formidable opponents. I’ve never seen anyone get the better of them before.”

The Barkley women went to bed, while Nick and Jarrod lay on the couches with their captives still tied on the floor.