Chapter 5 - The Father Who Came Back
"Son."
The old man stopped his horse in the middle of Silver Creek and looked directly at Harlan.
Harlan pulled a brass compass from beneath his shirt.
The same compass hung from the stranger's saddle.
Both were engraved with the same initials.
E.M.
Harlan's father was alive.
For several seconds he could not move.
Clara stood beside him.
Cole behind.
Pike near the church steps.
The entire town seemed to hold its breath.
Elias Mercer dismounted.
He was sixty-three.
Maybe older.
Time had carved deeper lines into his face, but Harlan remembered those eyes.
He remembered sitting beside a river at nine years old while his father taught him to sharpen a knife.
He remembered Elias leaving for a trapping expedition.
He remembered Pike arriving months later with a coffin.
Closed.
"You're dead," Harlan said.
Elias nodded.
"I let you believe that."
Harlan hit him.
The old man fell into the snow.
Nobody intervened.
Elias wiped blood from his mouth.
"I deserved that."
"Only one?"
"Probably not."
Harlan grabbed him.
"Silas."
"Alive."
"I know."
"Rusk has him."
"I know that too."
Harlan stared at him.
"Then talk."
They went inside Pike's church because half the town was watching.
Clara sat near Harlan.
He did not ask her to leave.
He wanted her there.
Elias began.
Twenty years earlier, the proposed railroad corridor had been surveyed unofficially.
The pass on Harlan's current claim had been identified even then.
Elias had owned the land first.
Caleb Rusk's father wanted it.
"When I refused," Elias said, "they tried to kill me."
"The trapping accident."
"Wasn't an accident."
Harlan looked toward Pike.
"You helped him disappear."
Pike nodded.
"I was young."
"You buried an empty coffin."
"Yes."
"And left two boys believing their father was dead."
Elias closed his eyes.
"I thought you'd be safer."
Silas's words returned.
I thought you'd lose land.
People committed astonishing cruelty while telling themselves it was protection.
"What happened after that?" Clara asked.
Elias looked at her.
"I went north. Changed my name. Watched from a distance."
Harlan's voice sharpened.
"You watched?"
"Yes."
"Mother died."
"I know."
"You watched?"
Elias looked broken.
"I couldn't come back without bringing Rusk's father down on you."
"He's been dead ten years."
"Caleb took over."
"So you stayed dead."
"Yes."
Harlan laughed once without humor.
"Convenient."
Clara touched his hand beneath the pew.
The gesture steadied him.
Elias continued.
"When Silas disappeared in Montana, I found him."
Harlan looked up.
"You?"
"The avalanche was arranged by men collecting his debts. Rusk's people were among them."
"You saved him."
"I helped him survive."
"Then why didn't he come home?"
"Shame."
Harlan looked away.
"He thought you'd hate him."
"I might."
"You wouldn't have."
No.
He probably wouldn't.
That made everything worse.
Elias learned Rusk intended to use Silas against Harlan.
He tried intervening secretly.
Letters vanished.
Messages were intercepted.
Then the bride advertisement appeared.
"Pike told me," Elias said.
Harlan stared at the reverend.
"You told him but not me."
Pike had no defense.
Elias learned Clara had been selected.
He followed her route west.
He arrived too late to prevent Rusk from taking her.
"You're the man who opened my door," Clara said.
Elias nodded.
"You gave me the map."
"Yes."
"The wagon never came."
Pain crossed his face.
"The driver was murdered."
Silence.
"I returned with another horse," Elias said. "You'd already gone."
Clara looked toward the window.
"So every time I thought no one came for me..."
"Someone was trying."
Her eyes filled.
She blinked the tears away.
Harlan squeezed her hand.
"What does Rusk want now?" Cole asked.
Elias looked at the ledger.
"The same thing. The pass."
"Why now?"
"Railroad board arrives tomorrow."
Cole stiffened.
"What board?"
"Three directors and a federal land examiner."
That changed everything.
If the ledger reached them, Rusk's operation could collapse.
If Rusk secured Harlan's land first, he might still win.
"Can he transfer my claim without me?" Harlan asked.
Pike answered.
"Not legally."
"Since when has that stopped him?"
Pike lowered his head.
Clara said, "He has Silas."
Elias nodded.
"He'll trade him."
"For the ledger."
"And your signature."
Harlan understood.
Rusk wanted an apparently voluntary sale.
A witnessed transfer before federal officials arrived.
"Where?"
"Grant Hotel."
"When?"
"Tonight."
Cole checked his revolver.
"We go."
Harlan shook his head.
"Not yet."
Everyone looked at him.
"For once, Rusk expects me to charge in angry."
Clara smiled faintly.
"He has met you."
Harlan looked at her.
"Funny."
"I thought so."
He turned to Pike.
"Can the hotel basement be entered from outside?"
Pike hesitated.
"Old coal tunnel."
"Where?"
"Behind the livery."
Harlan looked at Elias.
"You know it?"
"Yes."
"Good."
Then to Cole.
"Railroad directors. Where are they staying?"
"Blackwater tonight. Silver Creek tomorrow."
"Can you reach them?"
"If I leave now."
"Take copies."
Cole nodded.
Harlan looked at Clara.
"You're staying here."
She folded her arms.
"No."
"Clara."
"I stole the ledger. I know Rusk's office. And he doesn't expect me to come back willingly."
"Exactly why you're staying."
She stepped close.
"I spent three months being treated like cargo. I'm done being moved around by men who think they know what's best for me."
Harlan had no answer.
Elias coughed, badly hiding amusement.
Harlan glared at him.
"You lost voting privileges twenty years ago."
Clara almost smiled.
"I'm coming."
Finally Harlan nodded.
"But you stay behind me."
"We'll negotiate that later."
They prepared until evening.
Pike agreed to help.
Not because Harlan forgave him.
He did not.
But redemption, if possible, began with risk.
At nine, Harlan walked through the front entrance of the Grant Hotel carrying the black ledger.
Rusk waited in the dining room.
Fifty-two.
Immaculate suit.
Silver hair.
Polite smile.
Silas sat tied to a chair.
Bruised.
Alive.
Sheriff Danner stood nearby.
Four armed men lined the walls.
"Harlan Mercer," Rusk said. "At last."
Harlan placed the ledger on the table.
"Brother first."
Rusk smiled.
"Signature first."
A deed lay beside him.
Harlan read it.
Transfer of entire Mercer claim.
For one dollar.
He almost laughed.
"You always were generous."
"Sign."
"Release Silas."
Rusk nodded to Danner.
The sheriff cut one rope.
Silas stood unsteadily.
Then Rusk turned the document.
"Sign."
Harlan picked up the pen.
Above them, Clara moved through the second-floor corridor.
Elias waited in the coal tunnel.
Pike stood outside with townspeople who had finally heard enough.
Everything depended on time.
Harlan touched pen to paper.
Rusk leaned forward.
Then the hotel windows shattered.
Not from gunfire.
From stones.
Dozens of citizens stood outside.
Pike shouted, "We know what you did!"
Rusk's smile vanished.
Harlan dropped the pen.
"Seems the evening changed."
Danner drew his gun.
Silas tackled him.
Chaos erupted.
Harlan flipped the table.
Rusk ran toward the rear hallway.
Clara appeared at the stairs.
"There!"
Harlan pursued.
Rusk disappeared into the basement.
Harlan followed.
Elias entered from the opposite tunnel.
They trapped him between them.
Rusk stopped.
For the first time, fear appeared.
Then he smiled.
"You think this ends with me?"
Harlan aimed his revolver.
"It ends enough."
Rusk slowly raised both hands.
"You haven't seen the whole ledger."
Harlan paused.
"What?"
"The black book is one copy."
Cole had suspected accounting duplicates.
"Where's the other?"
Rusk laughed.
"Ask your bride."
Harlan's blood turned cold.
"What did you say?"
Rusk looked past him.
Clara had entered the basement.
Her face changed.
Rusk smiled.
"Tell him, Miss Whitmore."
Clara stared at Harlan.
"Harlan..."
"What?"
May you like
She reached beneath her torn dress collar.
And pulled out a small brass key Harlan had never seen before.
