Chapter 5 - The Men Coming Through Silver Creek
Evelyn did not wait.
She crossed the church toward the side door.
Caleb caught her arm.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“There are twenty armed men outside.”
“There could be fifty men at my ranch by morning.”
“Running into them won’t help.”
“The claim marker is under the spring.”
“And the ledger is here.”
“If Boone gets the original marker?”
Amos answered.
“He can file a competing claim.”
“Even with the ledger?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Vale already transferred his share. Boone can argue the others abandoned theirs.”
Caleb said, “Thomas’s deed disproves that.”
“If Boone destroys it.”
Everyone looked at the papers in Evelyn’s hands.
Reverend Pike said, “Then make copies.”
The county clerk, Harold Finch, stepped forward.
“I have a press.”
Amos glared.
“You’re in the ledger.”
Harold swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Boone paid you.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
Harold looked around at the people who had heard his name read aloud.
“Now I’d like to stop being ashamed.”
Within minutes, the church became an improvised records office.
Harold copied the deed.
The ledger pages.
Thomas’s letter.
Affidavits.
Amos dictated a confession and signed it.
Then Daniel signed his own statement.
Caleb signed Henry Mercer’s account.
Evelyn watched paper become armor.
Outside, Boone’s men surrounded the street.
They did not enter the church.
Not yet.
Boone wanted control without a massacre witnessed by the entire town.
That gave them time.
Martha Bell approached Evelyn.
“My wagon’s behind the bakery.”
“For what?”
“You’re going home, aren’t you?”
Evelyn smiled faintly.
“Yes.”
“Then stop pretending that giant fellow will talk you out of it.”
Caleb heard.
“I’m standing right here.”
Martha looked him up and down.
“You’re hard to miss.”
Despite everything, Evelyn laughed.
It was the first time she had laughed since morning.
The sound surprised her.
Caleb smiled too.
For one second, the weight of death and money and betrayal loosened.
Then a gunshot sounded outside.
Everyone ducked.
A voice shouted.
“Evelyn Carter!”
Boone.
Caleb’s expression hardened.
Silas Boone stood in the street beneath a lantern.
He held no weapon.
His men did.
“Come outside,” he called.
Evelyn moved toward the window.
Caleb stopped her.
“He wants you visible.”
“So does everyone in this church.”
She stepped onto the porch.
Caleb followed.
Amos did too.
Boone smiled.
“Quite a meeting.”
Evelyn said, “You should come in. We’re reading your ledger.”
Murmurs moved through the townspeople behind her.
Boone’s smile tightened.
“You’ve misunderstood old business.”
“I understood the part where you killed my husband.”
“I didn’t touch Thomas.”
“You ordered it.”
“Prove that.”
Evelyn held up copies.
“Working on it.”
Boone’s eyes flicked toward Amos.
“You disappoint me, Sheriff.”
Amos replied, “You stopped paying enough.”
A few people laughed.
Boone did not.
He looked back at Evelyn.
“Your ranch is no longer safe.”
“It never was while you were interested in it.”
“I’m offering you one last chance.”
“To sell?”
“To leave.”
“How generous.”
“One hundred thousand dollars.”
The crowd gasped.
Evelyn’s ranch had never been worth a tenth of that.
Boone continued.
“Cash. Tonight. You leave Wyoming and never return.”
Caleb watched her.
So did the town.
Evelyn said, “No.”
Boone’s face changed.
“Think carefully.”
“I have.”
“Your husband refused me too.”
Silence.
Boone realized too late what he had said.
Evelyn stepped forward.
“And what happened to him?”
Boone’s jaw clenched.
Caleb whispered, “Keep him talking.”
Evelyn understood.
“You threatened Thomas?”
Boone looked around.
“He made choices.”
“What choices?”
“Bad ones.”
“Like refusing you?”
“Like forgetting who made him.”
Daniel stepped onto the porch.
“You didn’t make him.”
Boone’s eyes narrowed.
“Daniel.”
“You used him.”
Boone laughed.
“He was a thief before he met me.”
Evelyn flinched but held steady.
Daniel said, “So were you.”
“Yes.”
“At least Thomas stopped.”
“Thomas became sentimental.”
“Thomas became decent.”
Boone’s voice sharpened.
“Thomas became inconvenient.”
The entire street heard it.
Evelyn’s heart pounded.
Amos said, “That sounds close to motive.”
Boone looked around.
He saw the crowd.
Witnesses.
For the first time, he appeared uncertain.
Then he smiled.
“All this drama over papers you won’t live long enough to file.”
His men raised rifles.
Caleb moved in front of Evelyn.
But before anyone fired, the church bell rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then came another sound.
Hooves.
Many.
Riders entered town from the south.
Ranchers.
Miners.
Farmhands.
Men and women from homesteads across the valley.
Martha Bell smiled.
“You thought we only rang the bell for the people already here?”
Boone’s men shifted nervously.
The newcomers spread across Main Street.
No one fired.
No one had to.
Boone was outnumbered.
Evelyn stepped around Caleb.
“Go home, Silas.”
Boone stared at her.
“You think this ends because sixty frightened farmers found rifles?”
“No.”
She held up Thomas’s letter.
“It ends when this reaches Cheyenne.”
Boone looked toward the north.
Then he smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“I don’t need your letter.”
Evelyn’s stomach tightened.
Boone continued.
“I need the marker.”
A rider approached from behind him.
Whispered something.
Boone nodded.
Then looked at Evelyn.
“And my men just found it.”
He mounted.
Caleb raised his rifle.
Amos stopped him.
“Not in town.”
Boone turned his horse north.
“By sunrise, Silver Creek belongs to me.”
He rode.
His men followed.
Evelyn faced the crowd.
“We go to the ranch.”
Caleb said, “Everyone?”
She looked at the people around her.
“No.”
She pointed to six experienced riders.
“You.”
Then to Harold.
“You take copies south. Cheyenne.”
Harold nodded.
“Martha, keep one set here.”
The old woman tucked papers under her coat.
“Already did.”
Caleb looked impressed.
Within ten minutes, Evelyn, Caleb, Daniel, Amos, and eight riders were heading north.
The storm finally broke.
Stars appeared.
The temperature dropped.
They reached the edge of Carter Ranch before dawn.
Smoke rose near the old spring.
Torches.
Boone’s men had excavated a large pit.
Evelyn counted twelve.
Maybe fifteen.
Caleb pulled everyone behind a ridge.
“We can’t charge that.”
Amos nodded.
“We wait for daylight.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“They could remove the marker.”
Daniel asked, “What does it look like?”
“Stone post,” Amos said. “Federal survey stamp.”
Caleb looked at Evelyn.
“Any other approach?”
She thought.
“Creek bed.”
“Frozen?”
“Mostly.”
“Can it get us behind them?”
“Yes.”
Caleb stood.
“I’ll go.”
Evelyn immediately said, “No.”
“I’m the quietest.”
Daniel looked at his size.
“No offense, but no.”
Caleb ignored him.
Evelyn said, “I know the creek.”
“So you show me.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Caleb.”
He stopped.
She stepped closer.
“You don’t own the right to risk yourself for my land.”
His eyes held hers.
“This isn’t only your land anymore.”
She knew what he meant.
Henry’s quarter.
His father’s death.
Their histories were tangled now.
Still, she said, “Then we both go.”
They descended together.
The creek bed led behind the spring.
They crawled the final fifty yards.
Evelyn’s hands went numb.
Ahead, men pulled at a stone object with ropes.
The marker.
Boone stood over the pit.
“Careful!”
One man shouted, “It’s loose!”
Caleb whispered, “We need a distraction.”
Evelyn looked toward the cattle pens.
Then smiled.
“What?”
“My father taught me something stupid.”
She crawled toward the pen gate.
Thirty head of cattle huddled behind it.
Evelyn opened the latch.
Then slapped the lead cow’s flank.
The herd moved.
Slowly first.
Then faster.
Boone’s men turned.
“What the hell?”
Cattle poured through the worksite.
Men jumped aside.
Torches fell.
Ropes snapped.
Caleb grabbed Evelyn’s hand.
“Now.”
They ran to the pit.
The stone marker was half exposed.
Caleb jumped down.
Evelyn followed.
Symbols were carved into the base.
Three diagonal cuts.
And beneath them—
A metal plate.
Caleb scraped dirt away.
Words appeared.
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
CLAIM REGISTER 1887.
Evelyn smiled.
“We found it.”
Then Caleb’s expression changed.
“What?”
He touched the lower edge.
“This has been opened.”
A rectangular compartment had been cut into the stone.
The cover hung loose.
Inside was empty.
Evelyn stared.
“What was supposed to be there?”
A voice answered from above.
“The original deed.”
They looked up.
Jeremiah Vale stood at the edge of the pit.
Alive.
Smiling.
May you like
Holding a pistol.
And beside him was the one person Evelyn never expected to see again...
