Corvin nodded.
Brennan stood.
His voice carried across the pass.
“United States cavalry will cease fire!”
The order repeated down the line.
Weapons lowered.
A minute later, the hidden ridges became silent.
Brennan walked into the open.
“I want Captain Hale.”
Corvin shook his head.
“You can have him when we’re sure he doesn’t disappear into a military jail.”
Brennan bristled.
“Careful.”
“I’ve been careful my entire life, Major.
It almost got me murdered before breakfast.”
That earned him another long stare.
Then Brennan nodded.
“Fair enough.”
It should have ended there.
It almost did.
Then Corvin heard a scream from the ranch.
Sena.
He turned.
Captain Hale was running toward the barn.
His bonds hung loose from one wrist.
Someone had cut him free.
Corvin saw who.
One of the Barstow gunmen.
The man raised a rifle.
Brennan shot him first.
Corvin spurred his horse.
Hale reached the barn.
Then emerged with a burning lantern.
Corvin’s blood turned cold.
The papers.
The ledger.
Sena saw it too.
Hale hurled the lantern toward the table where the evidence had been laid.
Sena lunged.
The lantern shattered.
Flames rolled across the dry boards.
Hale ran for the well.
Why the well?
Corvin jumped from his horse.
Sena kicked burning papers away from the spreading flames.
The elder and several warriors rushed forward.
Corvin chased Hale.
The captain reached the stone rim.
Then pulled something from inside his boot.
A small iron key.
He dropped to his knees and jammed it into a narrow opening beneath the loosened stone.
Corvin slammed into him.
Both men crashed into the dirt.
Hale struck Corvin across the jaw.
Corvin rolled.
Hale kicked him hard in the ribs.
“You fool!”
Hale shouted.
“You have no idea what’s down there!”
Corvin tackled him again.
They struck the well.
Stone scraped Corvin’s shoulder.
Hale drew a hidden knife.
The blade flashed.
Then stopped.
Sena stood behind him.
Her hand had closed around Hale’s wrist.
The captain stared in disbelief.
Sena twisted.
Bone cracked.
Hale screamed.
The knife fell.
She threw him into the dirt.
Corvin breathed hard.
“Remind me never to make you angry.”
For the first time since they met, the corner of Sena’s mouth moved.
Almost a smile.
Then Hale started laughing.
Not from humor.
From desperation.
“You think you won?”
Corvin wiped blood from his mouth.
Hale pointed toward the hole behind the removed well stone.
“That ledger is nothing.”
Sena’s smile disappeared.
“What’s down there?”
Hale looked at Corvin.
“The truth.”
They found the second compartment after sunset.
It was deeper than the first.
Hidden behind two feet of stone.
Inside rested a wooden box.
Small.
Old.
Unlike the military documents, it contained no official seals.
Only personal things.
A woman’s hair ribbon.
Turquoise beads.
A child’s leather shoe.
And several letters wrapped in oilcloth.
Corvin touched the shoe.
Something inside him tightened.
For no reason he understood, tears burned his eyes.
He picked up the first letter.
The handwriting was familiar.
His mother’s.
Or the woman he had always believed was his mother.
Ruth Torne.
