The man looked around.
“Where’s the girl?”
Silas stepped from the shadows.
“Right here.”
His fist struck the man before Crowe could react.
Chaos exploded.
Crowe reached for his revolver.
Silas slammed him against the wall.
Hattie ran.
She carried Mercy.
Dr. Hollister grabbed Asa.
They escaped through the kitchen.
But outside, two armed men waited.
One seized Hollister.
Another grabbed Hattie.
Mercy screamed.
“Let her go!”
Silas appeared in the doorway.
Crowe pressed a gun against his back.
“It’s finished.”
The man with the silver cane wiped blood from his mouth.
His name, they learned, was Edwin Vale.
He wasn’t a banker.
He was a land speculator.
And the Pell property contained something Tom Pell had discovered only months earlier.
Silver.
A rich vein ran beneath the northern ridge.
Worth a fortune.
Vale had tried to force Tom to sell.
Tom refused.
So Vale invented a debt.
When that failed, he arranged an accident.
Hattie stared at him.
“You killed my papa.”
Vale smiled faintly.
“Your father was stubborn.”
“Where is he?”
Vale’s smile disappeared.
Crowe looked away.
Hattie understood.
Something inside her became very still.
Vale stepped closer.
“The unfortunate thing is that Tom told someone about the silver.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
Vale crouched.
“We searched your cabin twice before the storm.”
Hattie’s eyes widened.
“While you were sleeping.”
Silas lunged.
Crowe cocked the revolver.
“Easy.”
Vale continued.
“Your father hid the survey showing where the vein begins.”
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“I believe you.”
He smiled.
“But I think he left it somewhere obvious.”
Vale reached toward Mercy.
Hattie recoiled.
“Don’t touch her.”
“Then tell me where your father kept important papers.”
“I don’t know.”
Vale sighed.
“Children become remarkably cooperative when babies start crying.”
Silas’s face changed.
“I’ll kill you.”
Vale stood.
“No, Mr. Brennan.”
He looked at Silas.
“You’re going to take us to the Pell cabin.”
They traveled before dawn.
Crowe drove.
Silas sat bound in the rear wagon.
Hattie held the twins.
Vale sat across from her.
The storm had finally passed.
Sunlight turned the mountains white and gold.
At Cottonwood Bend, Hattie stared toward the trees.
Something bothered her.
The drag marks.
The footprints.
The missing saddle.
Then she noticed something Silas hadn’t.
A broken branch high above the trail.
Too high for a walking man.
Hattie frowned.
“Stop.”
Crowe ignored her.
“Stop!”
Vale looked at her.
“What?”
“I know where Papa hid the map.”
Silas stared at her.
Hattie pointed.
“Back there.”
Vale ordered Crowe to stop.
They returned to the bend.
Hattie walked toward the cedar tree.
Her heart hammered.
She was lying.
But she needed time.
Vale followed.
“Where?”
“In the tree.”
He looked up.
Hattie suddenly ran.
