And she's currently the Director of Nursing and Midwifery Education and Director of the Women's and Nibbon Research at Griffith University and the Gold Coast. And she's going to talk to us today about domestic violence, so handing over to Kathleen. Are you there Kathleen? Yes, thank you Hazel, just unmuting my microphone. Welcome to everybody, it gives me great pleasure today to present to you on such an international audience and play a part in the virtual day of the Midwife e-conference. So today I'd like to spend some time talking to you about the role of the midwife in supporting women who experience intimate partner violence during pregnancy. So the aim of today's presentation is to explore the social context of domestic violence just to give people a bit of a background, discuss the effects of violence on a woman's well-being, examine the role of the midwife in supporting women experiencing partner violence and highlight some of the practice recommendations for us as midwives. Domestic violence knows no boundaries against women, it affects women regardless of their culture and of their social status. As well as it being a gross violation of a woman's human rights, it is a global health problem and I think the statement from the United Nations Secretary General actually sums up the problem nicely and he says there is one universal truth applicable to all countries, cultures and communities, violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable and never tolerable. So because we have an international audience today, I wanted to really look at some of the global statistics just to put some context to the problem. So the WHO of 48 population studies has estimated that 10 to 69% of women will experience physical violence by an intimate partner. It's a serious cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, a greater cause of ill health and traffic accidents and malaria combined. It is a translating cause of death for women aged 15 to 44 years and between 6 to 59% of women report that they're forced to have sexual intercourse by an intimate partner in their lifetime. But as well as it having health consequences, it also has an economic impact and a conservative estimate puts a welfare cost of an intimate partner violence to be around $4.4 trillion. If we include violence against women and children, then that cost rises to $8 trillion. And if we just look at Australia itself, it's estimated that the cost to the Australian economy is $9.9 billion a year and that will continue to rise if we don't start to do some system responses to the actual problem. And while we don't know enough about interpartner violence, there are two things that's very certain. First, domestic violence against women and children will impose a huge social cost as we've highlighted there. And secondly, and most importantly, there are solutions that can help to tackle some of these problems that are very cost effective. And that's why reducing domestic violence belongs on the shortlist of the world's next set of development goals. So what are the associated risks for an intimate partner violence?  If you suffer from a long-term illness or a disability, including mental health issues such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. If you live in poverty, if you have a luck, I'm really sorry, I don't know why my slides just keep jumping about. They seem to keep moving. I'm really sorry about this, but I don't understand why this is happening. And there is an increased risk if the woman is pregnant or has recently given birth. And when a woman has more than one risk factor, it actually increases her risk factors of experience and domestic violence even more. Hey, I'm not really sure what's happened, but all my slides have just disappeared off the screen. Sorry, I'm just putting them back on again. OK, so they're back up. So I don't understand why they keep disappearing. Sorry, everybody. That's all right. Yeah, Kelly, I can see that people can do that. I'm just figuring out how that gets stopped. We'll keep going and go on to the slides at the moment. If anyone can access them at the bottom of the arrows, just try not to. Just try and let Kathleen go through them in her own speed. Thank you, everybody. The wonders of technology. So as I was saying, if a woman has one or more risk, the more risk factors a woman has, the more of an increased risk she has of actually experiencing domestic violence. And I think if we look at these statistics, look at some of these risk factors, they're actually cover a large percentage of the women that we probably care for. So being female, obviously being aged 16 to 24 years of age and having three or more or more children, often a lot of the women that we care for, too, may have a lack of social support and they may also live in poverty. And so when you put all those risk factors together, it's clear to see that some of the women that we're probably caring for are actually experiencing partner violence. So if we look at the prevalence of intimate partner violence and pregnancy and you will find throughout this presentation that I use the terms interchangeably domestic violence, intimate partner violence. And that's because depending on what organisation you're working for or what country you live in, you may find both of those terms are used or one term is used more than another. Academics and researchers will often use the term intimate partner violence, whereas women themselves and organisations that work with women will still use the terminology domestic violence. So what is the prevalence of intimate partner violence and pregnancy? I'm sorry, but the slide has just jumped back. I'm trying to get it to sync to everyone else. So when I'm pressing the sync to try and get it so that you and you and I have got. Yeah, it's Deb here. I think I'm going to reload these slides if you don't mind. I'm really sorry to interrupt you. And I think we really shouldn't press the sync button. So I'll reload them. And then if we don't touch the sync button, hopefully that will sort the problem. So can you bear with me for a moment? Yeah, sure. Sure, Deb. So while we're waiting, we've got a question here from Susie about what about aboriginality as a risk factor? Hi, Susie. Yes, definitely. We do know that aboriginality is our risk factor. We estimate there probably, as I said earlier, that domestic violence knows no boundaries, you know, regardless of social class or grouping. But we do know that there are certain groups of women that are at higher risk and aboriginal women are one of one of those risk groups. I estimated there for time at more risk of experiencing their violence during pregnancy. Has anyone got any other questions just while we're waiting for the presentation to continue? So there was a question, how do women react to being asked about domestic violence? OK, well, I will come on to talk about that a little bit more, but we do know that women don't mind being asked about domestic violence. We have the research and the evidence now that tells us that they don't mind being asked when it's asked by a knowing care and professional.  When we did our research, we found that 98 percent of women did not mind being asked about violence during pregnancy. And when we did the work with the women, they actually said they understood why midwives would ask that question because of the increased risk. So women themselves have developed a good mechanism for actually expecting that question to be asked. And teenagers are definitely at an increased risk of partner violence. We know that when they're pregnant and when they're young and especially when they're often with a much older partner, there is an increased risk of violence occurring. And we have no way of knowing on the other question, Kelly, that they have to be asked to be asked is not to be a victim. It's absolutely true because it affects women and various social groups. And women often feel ashamed. So they won't open up about this unless somebody asked them. And sometimes they may not be honest initially when you first ask them. But we don't we have no way of knowing which women might be in a violent relationship. So we have to go for universal inquiry because otherwise we could be missing people. And so Hazel, as I might slide, loaded back up. They are just checking with Deb. Yeah, it looks like the PowerPoint might have been set up to go through an autoplay where they're changing every five minutes or five seconds on their own. I think that might be the problem. But do you want to just play button and. We'll see what happens. So what's happening is they're just going through. Is that right there? I'm just sure they should stop if you just continue. Yes, if you if you continue and forward your own slides and we'll just cross our fingers and see if it goes smoothly. OK, all right. Thank you. Thank you. So just moving on quickly, because I'm aware that we would have lost some time now and that we do know that women who experience partner violence during pregnancy are a much higher risk of experiencing risk factors. And those include repeated miscarriage. We often know that women that are physically abused will have a history of a repeated miscarriage, spontaneous abortion through through injuries that they've sustained. We do know there's a higher correlation with women who request terminations of pregnancy if they're in a violent relationship. They suffer from antiparsome hemorrhage, premature rupture of membranes and premature labor also when they're in a violent relationship because of the stress and the anxiety that goes on. Women will often present with their intrauterine growth retardation. Abrupto placenta, again, from any injuries that might be sustained from physical attacks and stillbirth. And we do know through confidential inquiries, confidential inquiries that mothers and babies have been murdered during pregnancy. There is a high risk of a low birth weight infant there at 16 times more high risk of giving birth to a low birth weight infant and some of the injuries to the unborn baby are fractures and ruptured uterus liver or spleen. So one role then, how do we identify partner violence? How do we identify that women that we care in for may be experiencing domestic violence? And many health care professionals, including midwives, are not trained to identify domestic violence. And they may mislabel and misdiagnose some of the women's problems due to anxiety or some other issue, often leading to inappropriate plans or ineffective remedies. But we also know that currently there's an ongoing debate about the commitment and the effectiveness of screening. And that's because we don't really have a lot of research that tells us about what are the long term outcomes for screening for domestic violence. And so that's where the future work needs to be carried out. But we do know that in certain health settings, such as well-ruling clinics, such as maternity, that asking women routinely about abuse is good practice. But it must be acknowledged here that for some of those people experiencing abuse, they may choose not to disclose when it's asked by a midwife or another health care professional in the first instance. Or they may decide it's not the right time for them to disclose. So the last thing we want to be doing is actually to be pressurizing women to give more detail or forcing them to take a course of action. And this is where I think in midwifery care, why continuity of care is so important. Because often when a woman first meets a midwife, it's very difficult to disclose about some of those personal issues and the relationship. But as that relationship develops, then a woman will feel much more comfortable and able to disclose. So what would be the role of the midwife? Is this a really complex, difficult thing that we're asking midwives to take on? Well, it's not because we are actually in a unique position to address some of these health and psychosocial needs of women who have experienced violence. But to be able to do that, it's really important that certain minimum requirements are met because we've got to be able to do that a-effectively and certainly safely. And we may be the first contact for that woman who's ever asked such a question, who's ever taken the time to really find out issues experiencing violence. And I do think that pregnancy and childbirth is often a time of change for women. And we know from the statistics that for all women who experience domestic violence, 30% of those women will have experienced domestic violence for the very first time during pregnancy. So it could be that the first time you ask that woman, she may not be experiencing physical violence, but she may be experiencing some of the psychological violence that goes on. But it could be because of that relationship that there's already violence occurring in a psychological and emotional sense, it could lead into physical violence. And she'll remember that you asked her that question. And as your relationship develops, hopefully she would be able to be honest and be able to open up to you. And for some women as well who experience in violence, that she, as a midwife, you may be her first contact with health services. So I think it's really important that we continue to build on this work and continue to build our knowledge. And it's really important that midwives are trained to be able to do this. And but it's also important that then you know what to do with a positive disclosure, when you get a positive disclosure. So I'm going to come on and talk about some of those things now. For those of you who can access it, the World Health Organization, in recognizing that healthcare providers and particularly healthcare providers who work closely with women such as midwives have a really important role to play, have produced an excellent document and a policy guideline. And so I've put that up there for you so that you can go online and actually get this document. It's an excellent document and it will help you understand some of the issues in a in-depth way that I don't have time to talk about today. So why are healthcare professionals and midwives actually reluctant? Well, I think it is about that fear of opening a Pandora's box. So if you ask the question and the woman tells you that yes, she is in a violent relationship, I think a lot of midwives are really fearful of actually knowing what to do next. They're often fearful of causing offence. Some may even believe it's not the province of health services, even though we know that women who experience partner violence are three times twice as likely to experience depression, twice as likely to abuse alcohol and illegal substances. So I think health we're actually dealing with a lot of the consequences. So I think it's important that we're now seen to be proactive. And we're predominantly female profession and if we know that domestic violence affects one in four women, then it's possible that we ourselves may have experienced domestic violence at some point in our life and may therefore find it very difficult to actually go there with a woman. But there's some really safe practice guidelines that we need to think about if we're actually going to start asking fair women. And that is please only ask women when it's safe to do so. And therefore, knowing how to ask the question involves attending training workshops, practicing how to ask, but what's really important and what women want us to do is be very clear about what we're asking and be confident when we're asking the question. Because if we come across as asking the question in a shameful way, then women feel ashamed too. It's really important that we listen carefully and we respond constructively to a positive disclosure. We consider the woman's safety and her children's safety and you consider our own safety. It's really, really important that you do not put yourself at risk. If, and being fearful of a positive disclosure, I've heard me do I say to me, so what do I do if a woman tells me yes, that she's experiencing domestic violence? The three simple things that you can do, we affirm a positive disclosure. So what I hear, what you're telling me is. And then it's really important to say to her, I'm sorry to hear that this is happening to you. How would you like me to help? Is there any information you need? There are support services that can help you. But it's also really important that you document if you've got a positive disclosure, but the documentation has to happen in a safe way. And certainly in the UK, they have handheld notes. So you would never document a disclosure about partner violence in a woman's handheld notes because that would put her at more risk. But it's really important that you document somewhere. And I put on the slide there about some of the things that's really important to document. And people often say to me, well, how do I ask the question? What's the best way to ask this question? Well, I've already said that it's really important to be confident and to be very clear about your asking but I really believe there's no script that fits all occasions, but just really focus on direct questioning. And if your messages are unclear, the woman may misinterpret your message and the opportunity for her to disclose to you will actually be lost. I absolutely believe confident questioning is the key. And if you don't feel confident about what to ask or how to ask, then discuss it with more experienced colleagues who may have some good ideas and some suggestions about how you can ask the question. So I've already said, responding to a positive disclosure, just once again, we affirm what she's telling you, tell her that you're sorry to hear that she's living with abuse. Really important thing to say as well is that you believe her because for many years she may have been living with a partner who will say, well, even if you tell someone, I'll never believe you. So it's really important to say that you believe her and thank her for being courageous enough to tell you about the abuse. And then ask her what she would like you to do. Now, you will have some professional guidelines that you'll have to work with, but it's really important that she's involved in the decision-making about what you're going to do. Where it becomes more complex is when there's child protection issues involved and if you feel children at risk, then you have a very clear pathway about how you should deal with them. But the woman should be involved in the decision-making that you will make about her disclosure. Again, documenting a positive disclosure is really important and again on this slide is just some of the things that you really need to think about when you're actually documenting it. Safety assessment is really important. Is it safe for her to go home and you will make that decision with her about her safety? But what we do know is that there's certainly some barriers for midwives when it comes to asking women about partner violence. And some of those barriers are a continued presence of a partner. A good practice is always, always to ask the woman when she's on her own. You would never ask in the presence of a partner. But I think in maternity services now, we've worked very hard to be very inclusive and that's the right way for us to practice. But we do know then that sometimes it can be very difficult then to be able to actually get a woman on her own and be able to ask her this question. And so perhaps what we do need to think about is how do we manage that situation then? How do we get women to be on their own for a certain amount of time on her appointment or to have a one-to-one appointment with her? We also know there's some organisational barriers. So lack of privacy, we know that some midwives don't always have a very private room, consultation room. I mean, you know that midwives are very busy and when we were listening to some of Ali's talk, we, some of the comments were that, you know, how do you do all we have to do in such a short space of time? I know from talking to midwives that they don't always have a clear referral pathways in place. So developing your guidelines and your policies and your referral pathways are absolutely essential before you would start to conduct any of this work. For women whose first language may not be English, then we know in countries like Australia and the UK there's a lack of translation services and interpreter services. And we also know there's a lack of support for midwives to do this work. All midwives should be trained and they should have ongoing support to do this work and we do know that that is not happening. I think some of these, I'm just going to move on now because I know that we're running behind because of the slides. So what's the impact of research? Where are we now in this work in 2015? Well, we do know that women do not might be asked about partner violence. So I think we know that we should be doing this work. We know that for all women who experience domestic violence, 30% of those who are in the very first instance of domestic violence will occur during pregnancy. We also know that if there's violence occurring in a relationship, it will escalate during pregnancy. We know now through research that women's wives are trained and given support to do this work. They do this work very, very well. Then in the UK, nice guidelines have now been produced. Again, reinforcing the importance of this work and how as midwives and healthcare professionals we should be responding effectively to this work. So the implications for practice are that as midwives we must strive to develop an open trusting relationship and create opportunities for women to talk about their experiences of violence. There has to be a sustained commitment to universal inquiry, but therefore midwives must become skilled in their communication. So that women do not experience midwives are asking them about a history of partner violence. There's nothing more than a tick box exercise. And we have to work up and find a way to offer women confidential time alone with a midwife. We know this is happening in many areas, but we must continue to make sure that education about all aspects of domestic violence is implemented in all our undergraduate curriculum. And that the form of this education should take a multi-agency approach. And the reason why I say that is because when women experiencing domestic violence we don't respond as a single agency. We respond as a multi-agency. So the approach that we do around the education should also be multi-agency. There needs to be a continued commitment for education and training for all qualified healthcare professionals, including midwives. And the link should be made to other aspects of safeguarding, including child safety. It's really important that training programs that are evaluated and that them should be skill based and then evaluated for their efficacy. But we do need further research in this area. We need more quantitative research, exploring the dynamics of a trusting relationship between a woman and a midwife. I think as a midwife we already ask women such personal questions. And so, but there does seem to be some form of barrier around asking women about domestic violence during pregnancy for many midwives. We need to continue to build on our research to develop a deeper understanding of violence against women and children. And presently, most of that research is focused on prevalence rates, detection rates and the negative health consequences of interpartner violence. There's a gap in the evidence and respect to effective interventions. We need to know what works well. So we need to build on that body of work around what is the long-term outcome of doing routine inquiry in pregnancy by midwives. We need to know what difference does that make to women's lives. And therefore, we have to bring women's subjective accounts into the effectiveness of that referral pathway. So to conclude, I think this is an excellent summary. We have some of the tools and the knowledge to make a difference. And those same tools have been used successfully to tackle our health, other health care problems. Domestic violence, interpartner violence and abuse is often predictable and it's preventable. And therefore, we should be working very hard to try and respond effectively. And I have just some references. So thank you very much for listening. I'm so sorry that we had an issue with slides. I'd really like to answer any questions that I can now. Thank you. Does anyone got any questions or you can put your hand up or you can type it in the chat box. Thank you very much, Kathy. That was a very interesting informative session. I'm sorry, again, about the slides. We'll just see if anyone's got any questions. Allie, do you have any recommendations for places to have this education in Australia online or otherwise? Thank you, Allie. Well, here in Queensland, the goalposts were just about to start a training program for midwives. And part of that training program will be, obviously, face-to-face training. We're planning on a six-day face-to-face training, but what we hope to do is actually put it as our online tool as well. But the work we did in the UK, we found that the thing that midwives valued the most was actually the opportunity around skill development. So the opportunity to work in small groups and practice asking the question and having the opportunity to respond when someone in that group would give them a scenario that said they were in a violent relationship. And so when we evaluated the training that we had done, we had certainly changed the attitudes. We had certainly increased knowledge and we'd certainly increased confidence. But what the midwives valued the most was that opportunity for that face-to-face skill development. But certainly the way forward is to develop an online resource. Any other question we've got here is, do you have any strategies for getting women alone when controlling men insist on being always present? Yes, when I've spoken to midwives over the years, a lot of them have different strategies for getting the women on their own and certainly the confidential inquiry into maternal deaths in the UK several years ago, recommended that all women should be offered one appointment on their own with the midwife. But it is very difficult because we do know that controlling men are often the men who won't leave the women on their own. So some midwives had developed very clever techniques as in having the weighing scales in a different room. And certainly in our antinatal clinic, we used to have women to do a urine specimen at the clinic and we would have blue dots in the toilet and ask women to put a blue dot on their urine pot if they wanted to speak to a midwife about domestic violence. So that worked quite well. We had quite a few women who put a blue dot on the sticker and then the midwife would find a reason to go and visit that woman at home when hopefully her partner was without. So there's no easy way. I think it is complex and it is difficult. And I think that's why we're still talking about this work instead of just getting on and doing it because it is complex and it is difficult. And so I noticed that some people are saying that they take the women off to the toilet and ask her then. And I think that's a really good idea. But then I've spoken to some midwives who say that they feel that's a hurried question, they don't feel they get the opportunity to ask it properly. And certainly when I was a practicing midwife and doing this work many, many years ago, I would, if a couple came together for the booking appointment, I would say to the partner that at the end of the appointment, I would like some time alone with them on their own, both of them on their own.   You might not want to say something. Is there anything you want to talk to me about or say that you might not want it to say from to your partner? And so it didn't look as if I was purposely just getting her on her own. So you will, midwives have to find their own way of trying to do this effectively. And it has to feel comfortable and it has to feel right for you, just like there's no one script on how to ask the question because it has to feel right for you. But certainly during the training, we offer lots of different scenarios and different ways of asking that question. Excellent. Thank you, Kathleen. I think that having the partners on their own seems to be resonating well with a few people here in the chat room as a good idea. And I liked how you suggested in the training that you would do some scenarios where the midwife actually gets a yes because there might be some midwives that have never experienced what to do when the woman says yes, she has got issues. So I think that's a great, and we can still do two. And the other thing we noticed, hey, the laughter, the training, there was that midwives would say that they were very, became very good at picking up the, because they'd have the knowledge and the education around it, they become very good at picking up some of the signs that they may be, they said now, you know, we may have missed those previously. So they would then definitely try to think of a way to get that woman on her own to ask her because some of the signs were there that were alarming them. Yeah, yeah, excellent. Any other questions from anyone? So in what areas, Kathleen, could you see further research? Like what areas do you think are particularly important to get further research into domestic violence? Well, I think, you know, as I said, I think it's really important that we start to collect the evidence around for women who do disclose and that we're able to offer them some support and help what are the long-term benefits for them. And women's accounts, we do lots of research, but we don't include women in those. And I know my own PhD was talking to women who had experienced violence during pregnancy. And they often said that even if a midwife asked and the woman didn't disclose at that particular time, the fact that the midwife asked made them feel that they could tell her if the time was right. Because women do feel very ashamed. And they said, please don't stop asking us because we would never tell you otherwise. Because how do we bring that conversation up because we feel so ashamed? So the long-term outcomes for me is really important that we collect the evidence that by asking the question, certainly in the UK, by asking the question, we had a seven-fold increase in disclosure rate from women. So we know it's effective, but that was only a small pocket of research. So for me, I'd like to see a much bigger study done to record the disclosure rates if we start to ask this question. Excellent. And there's a comment here from Sarah that she's pleased to see it's starting to appear in textbooks for undergraduate midwifery students, which is, that's great. Yeah, absolutely. And certainly, I think it's also appearing on the undergraduate curriculum. People that I talk to, other academics are certainly saying that they're including it in their program. What's not effective is if you just do an hour or two hours and certainly a two-hour training session. It makes some difference, but it needs to be longer than that for it to be effective. And it's really important to have support mechanisms in place for midwives when they're doing this work, because it can be complex and it can be difficult. Yeah, thank you. Any other questions coming up? Well, I would... Yeah, that's right, there's a comment there, but having a trust in relationship with midwife before they disclose information. But I guess with our increased contingency of care programs around, and certainly, you know, that could be quite interesting looking at the effects of the contingency of care relationship and disclosing. Absolutely, absolutely. And that's so, so important. And that's why sometimes when you initially ask the question, you may not get a positive disclosure, but certainly as a community midwife in the UK, I found that as the woman and I grew our relationship, then I often would get a disclosure. When I'd been told no the first time I asked. Yeah. And then would you then be asking the same questions or would it just be coming up in conversation? Well, it would just come up in conversation, but we do know now that certainly that people are saying that we shouldn't just ask that question once, we should ask it at least two, maybe three times during pregnancy. So, but quite often, certainly many, many years ago, I would ask that question. And then the woman would say, you remember when we first met and you asked me about domestic violence? And I say, and she said, and I said, no, well, I just want to tell you now that, yes, it is happening because again, because we know that if it's happening prior to pregnancy that it will often escalate in pregnancy. So, yeah. Excellent. Thank you very much. And thank you again for your presentation. Thank you for everyone's questions and chat. I'm just going to turn off the recording now.


The very horse with a speed of light, the cloud of dust, and a hearty Hi-O silver, the lone ranger. With his faithful Indian companion, Tato, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the planes led the fight for law and order in the early western United States. Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoof beats of the great horse, Silver. The lone ranger rides again. Come on, Silver! Let's go, big fellow! Come on, Silver! Two men worked by lantern light in the tunnel that Jack Madison had abandoned. They worked secretly, dust as they had on a score of other nights, deepening the side tunnel that opened from the main shaft. Now, wait a minute, P.V., let's see what we got. It all looks different than the rest. What do you mean? P.V., it means we've got gold. I knew all along that Jack Madison's vein hadn't run out. I knew it.  Hit me rich! Cash, make me rich! Just a minute, P.V. Maybe you forget that this ain't our tunnel. It still belongs to Jack Madison. Yeah, it's so. But we'll buy it from him. That's what we'll do. We'll buy it. You'll suspect something if you try to buy it. If chances are, come here and look around, then you'll see where we've been working. Yes, maybe so. But it cover the work we've done, so he won't notice it. You won't do business with us anyway. Not after the way we clean them on that other deal. Well, it's worth a try. I happen to know he needs cash and needs a bad. His father's a sick man. Jack wants to take him away from me. Go ahead and try. If Madison won't sell, I've got another plan. Maybe you better try that one first. I don't want to, Kisley. Why not? I've got nothing against Jack Madison. He's all right. I'd hate to see him put to death by torture. Torture? Indian torture. That's what my other plan will mean. I'll call on him first thing in the morning and see if he'll sell out. You won't? Well, one way or the other, Kisley, we're gonna have this gold. Here, Dad, let me take those breakfasts, Dad. Thanks, Jack.  Oh, forget it. I never thought I'd see the day that Hickory Jim Madison would be too weak to get out of bed. You'll be all right, Dad. By just as soon as we get enough saved up to take you away from this country, then... Son, yeah? Don't talk so. I know how things stand. What do you mean? I know you don't get enough by panning the stream to do any more than by grub. I know you can't get anything ahead, son. Don't try to fool me. Ah, Adora, I'll see who it is. Hello, Madison. Peavey. You might if I step in for a minute. I'll talk him in his house. And that gold's double for me. And not just a minute. Please listen to me. But talk fast and get going. Well, it's about that deal we had, that property you bought for me in Carsley. What about it? Jack, I didn't know your Blue Streak mine had petered out. I didn't know you'd abandoned it. Oh. You didn't, huh? No, I thought you were getting rich on the Blue Streak. And when Carsley suggested that we unload some worthless land on you, I figured you could afford laws. What about it, Peavey? I didn't know we were taking every cent you had. Well, you know it now. Yep, you may. I'm downright sorry. I would not do something about it. Then take back the land you solders and return our cash. Well, I can't do that, Jack. I'd like to, but... But what? Well, you see Carsley cares most the cash, and, well, he's not like me. He don't have a conscience. I've got to get the cash from him, and he'd never buy back the land we sold to. Oh, I reckon that. He knows it ain't worth a dime. That's it, Mr. Madison. But here's something he don't know. He don't know how the Blue Streak petered out. He thinks that mine is worth something. Now, if you would sell it cheap, I could get back all you lost. I, uh... I thought you and Carsley were pals. We are. And you're ready to double-cross him on our account? Jack, it's my conscience. Let's send your scheme and pull Catus no gold. But, Jack... I did business with you once. That was enough. You need cash, don't you? Rammles! Want's to buy the Blue Streak, huh? Or maybe I'd better have another look at that, too. Do you think there's any chance that P.V. was sincere? If he was, he wouldn't have brought Carsley here with him. Is Carsley here? Yeah. I can see him through the window. P.V. has joined him over there next to the creek. Well, now, P.V. I didn't think you would. Carries, Nick. I'm sure you've covered all the signs that we'd worked in the Blue Streak. Sure. Madison will probably go there to see where I wanted it. You said you had another plan. I have. It'll be mighty rough on Madison, but he had his chance. When Jack Madison investigated his Blue Streak mine, he found it just as he had left it. All signs of recent digging had been removed. Carsley had been clever in concealing the work he had done with P.V. During the next few days, Jack saw nothing of the schemers. He dismissed them from his mind and devoted all his time and energy to panning the nearby stream for a meager existence. He didn't know that his enemies had left the community to lay plans for his death by torture. The Lone Ranger rode into a mountain camp near Spirit Valley. His nephew, 14-year-old Dan Reed, had been there since daybreak. Oh, sir, hold on. I'm glad you're here. What happened, Dan? What makes you think anything happened? The expression on your face for one thing. Who came here? How did you know? How did you know that someone was here? Well, if you look carefully, you can see the hoof marks of a horse. Which I would say was black. I can see them now that you point them out, but... How did you know it was a black horse? A horse brushed a chunk of that tree and left a few hairs on the bar. You're enough! Who was here, Dan? Well, the man didn't give his name. He just left this with some instructions. Tobacco pouch? Yes, but look what's in it. What it is? You look at them. Gold. Like it's of gold. Is it really gold? I'm sure of it, Dan. Golly, then he wasn't fooling. Strangers don't hand out this much gold without a very good reason. Well, I... I guess he had a good enough reason. What did the man look like? He looked sort... his looks were sort of against him. His eyes were kind of shifty and he looked well... well, sort of mean and underhanded. What did he say? Why did he leave this gold with you? I'll tell you the whole story. He rode into camp and passed the time of day. Asked if he might fill his canteen at the spring. Told him to help himself. Then we got talking and he asked which way we intended to travel. He seemed real pleased when I told him we expected to go. What east, eh? Eh, do you think you'll go as far as Oxbow? That's about two days, ma'am. Oh, I'm sure we'll go as far as that. By thunder it must have been fate to put you in my path. Huh? Now, look here, son.  How's that? Well, I'll tell you. Did you ever hear of Jack Madison? No. Well, he lives in Oxbow.  He's bed-ridden. Oxbow's in the Gold Hills, isn't he? Yep. And Jack Madison owned a likely looking mind. I see. I thought he was rich. And I put over a crooked deal and took some money from him. I'm ashamed of his son. I'm downright ashamed. And I want to make good what I've done. You see, I didn't know that Madison's claim had petered out and that I took his last cent. Well, golly, I don't see what I can do. Well, I'm getting to that, lad. I'm a rich man now. I don't look it, but it's true. I'm rich. I stuck it rich in the valley of the spirits. Oh, that's right near here. Yep. I tried to give Jack Madison some cash, but, well, he wouldn't take it. Then I tried to tell him where he might strike Gold and he wouldn't listen. He's mighty proud. And on top of that, he hates me. Uh-huh. Now, here's what I want you to do. You take this sack of Gold Nuggets to Oxbow and give them to Jack Madison. Don't say nothing about me. All right. You can just say that an old friend sent him. Tell him there's a lot more where these came from in the valley of the spirits. He's heavy. I guess so. I'm trusting you, son. Don't let me down. I'll never rest unless I know that Jack Madison is old for it. And he didn't give his name? No. Did he say where he was going? No. I wonder if he's telling the truth. Golly, it sounded like the truth. Why would he leave the Gold if his story wasn't true? I don't know. But I think we'll check up on him. Saddle up, Dan. We're going to break camp? No. We'll ride into the valley and look around. The tunnel should be here pretty soon. We'll leave a message telling him where we've gone. All right. I'll get Victor Saddle right away. I'll get some tools ready. There's Gold in the Valley of the Spirits. I want to know about it. I put it over at Guy's Lake. I put it over in good shape. I hope that kid's honest. That boy, Shay, he's as honest as the day is long. I can tell that by one look at him. You sure Jack Madison will head for the Valley if he thinks there's Gold to be found? Well, horses couldn't keep away. All right, then what? Then what? You mean to say you don't know what happens to anyone that starts digging in the Valley of the Spirits? What happens? He dies. With Jack dead, we can make a deal with the old man and buy the Blue Street. Give in. Listen to me. Eh? If you're basing this whole scheme on a superstition about the Valley of the Spirits... A superstition, my eye! That Valley is an Indian burial ground. Redskins are on the watch day and night. They see anyone digging around there just stripping the bones of the dead ones. They close in fast. Oh, I see. And it's a sure bet that Jack will go there. When he starts digging around, it's sure bet that he's... he's a dead pity man. Steady. This is sure a lonesome-looking Valley, isn't it? Steady, silver. It certainly is, Dan. This is the first time I've been here. I'll get the spades untied. We'll poke around right here where the ground's been recently turned. All right. Here's one of the spades. This doesn't look like gold-bearing ground. Maybe if we dig down a little. We've tried it. Look out! Golly! Look! An arrow stuck right in that tree. That means Indians. The curtain falls on the first act of our Lone Ranger story. Before the next exciting scenes, please permit us to pause for just a few moments. Now to continue our story. The Lone Ranger didn't know that the Valley of the Spirits was an Indian burial ground. With Dan, he was just about to push a spade into newly turned earth when an arrow flashed in the sun and struck a nearby tree. That's a minute, Dan. I want to look at that arrow. There's something familiar about it. It sure hit hard. Strong man, Juliet. Look it over, Dan. This is one of Tondo's arrows. Yes. How could anyone get one of Tondo's? Look over there. It's Tondo. What's the matter with him? Why did he shoot that arrow at us? Dan, if Tondo had shot that arrow at us, he'd have struck us. He doesn't miss the mark by several yards. Tondo! Tondo! Me find message and can't. Why'd you shoot that arrow? We see you ready to dig and ground. This sacred ground for Indian burial. Tondo, are you sure of that? Ah, me plenty sure. Plenty Indian hidden in all sides. All Indian ready to make you prisoner when you put spade to ground. Oh, golly! Punishment, death by torture. You shot the arrow to stop us. Are the Indians watching us right now? That's right, Dan. Tondo, is there any gold in this valley? No, no gold here. But that man said he'd found gold here. Man who'd say that tell lie. The man I talked to didn't want to help Jack Madison at all. He wanted him killed by the Indians. Then that man knew you were waiting in camp for someone. Yes, I told him that. Did you tell him about Tondo or me? No, but... Then go ahead and do just what he asked. You mean take the gold to Jack Madison? Yes, Tondo will go with you. We'll play that cook's game and see how he expects to make a score. Gold! Dan, it is gold. Well, there's over a hundred dollars worth right here in a sack. I can't believe it. Now look here, Dan Reed, I want some facts. I've told you all that I can, Jack. The man wanted you to have that gold and I promised to bring it to you. You can't tell me his name or what he looks like. I promise not to. Son, I have grub-staked a lot of men in my day. Maybe one of them is taking this way to repay me. Well, we can sure use this gold. You going to that valley and see about staking a claim? I don't know, Dad. I'll go with you. I'll show you the way.  You go. Well, I... I'll take it over. Dan and Tondo stayed at the Madison House for the next two days. In that time, they won the confidence of Jack and his father. They became trusted friends. Convinced that Tondo would take good care of his invalid father. Jack packed a few essentials and started west with Dan Reed. Cars Lake and Peavey watched them ride out of the community. Looks like your scheme worked first, right, Peavey? I knew it would. What about the kid that's traveling with Jack? He's dealt himself a hand. You'll have to take what comes. How soon are we going to call on the old man? We've got to wait until he gets worried that his son's been killed. It might be quite a while. We can afford the way, Cars Lake. We can afford the way. One week went by and nearly two days of the second week. Then, at sunset, a tall stranger rode into town on a white stallion and asked how to reach the home of Jack Madison's father. Word of a stranger's arrival reached Peavey and Cars Lake in the cafe. Yeah, Peavey. He was real sober acting about it. Did he say he'd found Jack Madison dead? He didn't say so. But if it wasn't Jack's corpse that lay across the saddle wrapped in a blanket, what was it? Is it that Cars Lake? Yeah. Poor Jack Madison. I'll never forget when he left here. He said he expected to come back a rich man. Yeah, the poor kid. Peavey, I'm sorry for Jack's father. This will hit a mighty hard. Maybe we should go call on the poor old man. That's a good idea, Cars Lake. Maybe we can do something for him. Maybe we can help him out in some way. Let's go to his place right away. Oh, it's you, Peavey. Madison, you're up and around. You feeling better? Yep. What do you want? Well, look here, Madison. Cars Lake and I want to talk to you. We heard that you... Well, have you heard from Jack? Well, I reckon you must have heard that my boy was brought home. Yeah, we did. Look here, Madison. Maybe it's a poor time to talk business, but... And we've got to work fast. There's some newcomers in town. I can unload that blue streak mine on him. What good is the blue streak? The newcomers don't know it's worked out, see? Cars Lake and I want to return the cash we swindled you out of.  There's no tunnel on that land, Madison. Now, the blue streak really looks like something. You want to buy it? Yes. You see, we can resell it right away. But it ain't mine to sell. It's Jack's. You're Jack's only living relative, aren't you? Then the blue streak is yours. That is, unless your son made a will given the property to someone else. Oh, Jack never made a will. But even so, I don't know as I got the right to sell the blue streak. That's our worry. You mean you'd pay me the money and take the chance on me having the right to sell the property? Yes. Well, if that's all right with you, I reckon it's all right with me. Just so there's no misunderstanding, we lead witnesses to the deal? Well, we'll go to town and get the sheriff and someone else for witnesses, isn't it? While you're going, I'll draw up the papers. Good. We'll see you later, Madison. Yep. I'll be here. I hope I've done right. Good work, Madison. Great day. Who are you? That mask? I'm still the man who owns a horse in your barn. Oh, you heard what those poor cats said? Yes. Only buzzards. They didn't wait long to pounce on Jack's property. I didn't know what to do about their offer. You said to hear him out and be agreeable. That's what I'd done. You did just right. When they come back with the cash and witnesses, you'll have a bill of sale already for them. Madison, I hope you know what you're doing. Oh, sure, Sheriff. I know what I'm doing. He drew up the paper himself. P.V., if you and Cars Lake try to swindle Madison like you did, you'll land on. There. I signed it. Sheriff, I guess it's up to you to sign right there as a witness, eh? Mind if I look it over first? No. Go ahead. It may not have a lot of the fancy legal wordin', but I reckon it tells what I'm givin' these men for what they're givin' me. I see. If that land's worthless, why do you two want to buy it for $1,500? That's our affair. We figured a reseller did a profit. That's all, Sheriff. I told him I wasn't sure I had any right to sell the Blue Streak. But they're willing to take a chance on that. Well, I reckon it's none of my affair. I'll sign as a witness. That's all I'm here for. Hurry up, Sheriff. I want to get out of here. There you are, Joe. Your turn to sign. Here's the cash, Madison. $1,500. And there's your paper with all the nameshined. Let's get out of here. I'll send the coroner, Madison. Thanks, Sheriff. There's your paper, Cars Lake. All signed and folded meets. Mm-hmm. There's anything else we can do. You let us know. Yeah. Good night, Madison. Good night. Good night, all. Peebe and Cars Lake went to the Blue Streak mine early the following morning. They went to work removing the worthless dirt they'd used to conceal their previous discovery. They shoveled furiously without causing to rest. Sweat rolled down their faces. In the light of several lanterns, their eyes burned with eagerness to reach the mother load. Finally, Cars Lake threw down his spade. Well done, Peebe. Here's the load. Gold. Gold, Cars Lake, and it's ours. All ours. The fortune is worth a cent. Madison will be fit to be tied when he hears of this. We'll just tell him the dealer countered on fell through, so we decided to come look the tunnel over and found this load. That's it. Maybe we'll give him a little more cash just to show how generous we are. Generous? Look, he smashed. Make it easy. You think you can steal? I'm not here to steal. Come in here, Jack. You get out of here. This is private.  Jack Madison. No. No, it can't. Madison, you're dead. You crooked your counter on me being dead, didn't you? Your plan didn't quite work out. You see, that masked man knew about Spirit Valley. Well, you wondered why someone wanted Jack to go there to almost certain death. This man met me, told me about the valley, and we decided to see what you crooked her up to. You knew all along that there was gold in the blue street. You're cheeky. You lied. You were told the truth. Jack Madison was beneath the blanket when I brought him to town. You were that man? Yes. He's the one who fixed up the bill of sale. Well, there's just one thing we got to do to make everything just right. The Indians didn't get you. So I will. No! How about you, Peavey? You want to draw on us? No, no, no. My arms! My arms! Sir, you're right. I'll get out of this tunnel and stay out. Just a minute. Your dad misrepresented things. He showed us his tunnel and took our money. He didn't misrepresent a thing. He warned you that he might not have the right to sell the blue streak? He sure did. And you said you'd take a chance on that. You agreed to take that chance. But we thought... We were told that Jack was dead. You were told nothing of the kind. You got to assume that he was dead. You assumed it because you set me to get killed. I'll get out of my tunnel and stay out. Grab that one, Jack. Help him out!  Peavey, you and Cars Lake got an old lake to stand on. You bought and paid for the blue streak if Dad Madison had the right to sell it. You put it in writing that you'd forfeit the cash if it developed that Dad did not have the right to sell. But we thought Jack was dead. What you thought don't matter. I've got some thoughts of my own. Yeah. Jack thinks you critters plotted his murder. You can't prove that. I thought I could try.  The Lone Ranger outsmarted you. That's all there is to it. The Lone Ranger? Is that who that matchman is? Yes, and he sure proved a friend. Peavey, we better do as the sheriff says.  We're up against that kind of competition. We're out of our class. The story you have just heard is a copyrighted feature of the Lone Ranger Incorporated.