So there was this young Nebraska farmer in the 1800s who met up in a bad way with a barbed wire fence.

It was in the days before much in the way of roads, and so riding his horse 35 miles from his homestead to O'Neill, Neb., to get some supplies meant riding across country.

Andrew W. Lance was on his way home, his horse galloping, when suddenly in front of him was a newly built barbed wire fence he didn't know would be there. His horse shied to avoid it, but one of Lance's legs caught on the barbed wire, causing serious injury. He managed to fashion a tourniquet, then passed out, but somehow managed to stay on as, mile after mile, his horse continued to take him home.

His wife, Charlotte, heard a noise, came out and found the horse and her husband. Charlotte, a midwife who had medical skills, sewed him up, and used a poultice and other methods. He survived but had to get a cane.

In 1926, he died at age 80.

Mid-day Sept. 12, 2007, that cane was still around - in Bismarck.

Mid-day that same day, a little later, it wasn't.

Lance's grandson, Dr. Marlin Johnson, 84, an internist who retired from medicine and the Q&R Clinic just four years ago, had recently started using the about 130-year-old cane when he goes out because of his arthritic hips.

And now he wishes he hadn't.

Johnson, who every Wednesday volunteers to lead Bible study groups at the North Dakota Penitentiary, had the cane when he left the prison Sept. 12 - a prison employee is sure of it, Johnson said.

But it was a warm day and the top on his convertible Volkswagen was down when he stopped at Dan's Supermarket, 835 S. Washington St.

He left it in the car, since it was to be a short trip in and out, came back out and drove away.

He doesn't know if someone might have taken it then, or not, but it's gone, no longer in the car, or anywhere else.

He was 4 when his grandfather died, but he still remembers his bearded grandfather and how he would use the cane's shepherd hook to hook a grandchild and lovingly bring the child to him.

He really loved children,"Johnson said.

Johnson has been trying to locate the cane with newspaper ads and a $150 reward, but no luck.

He still has another cane of his grandfather's, a gold-plated cane that the church community in Bristo, Neb., presented to Lance on the occasion of his and Charlotte's 50th wedding anniversary.

But Johnson really wants back the plain cane whittled on by his grandfather. And the reward is still available.

The cane is a light tan with a shepherd's hook. On the end of the hook are his grandfather's hand-carved initials.

To reach Johnson, call 333-8385.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)