Elena handed it to him.
"You should open it."
Caleb lifted the lid.
Inside were letters.
A revolver.
And a photograph.
He picked up the photograph.
Four men stood beside a wagon.
One of them was his father.
Caleb stared.
"I've never seen this."
Elena pointed to another man.
"That is Elias Ward."
Caleb recognized the name.
Elias Ward had been a wealthy landowner who disappeared nearly thirty years earlier.
"My father knew him."
"He worked for him."
Caleb looked at her.
"What?"
"Your father was not the leader."
She took the photograph.
"Elias Ward was."
Caleb opened one of the letters.
The handwriting belonged to his father.
The water lies beyond the ridge. If Ward finds it, he will own the valley.
Caleb read the sentence twice.
"What water?"
Elena looked toward the hills.
"The reason this village survived."
Caleb continued reading.
The letters described a hidden spring beneath the mountains. A spring large enough to support cattle, crops, and a settlement.
But there was something else.
A warning.
Ward planned to claim the entire valley.
He intended to force the Apache families from the land.
Caleb lowered the letter.
"My father was helping you."
"At first."
"What changed?"
Elena took a long breath.
"He became afraid."
Caleb looked at the photograph.
"Of Ward?"
"No."
"Then of what?"
Elena's eyes met his.
"Of himself."
The Man Who Stayed
That afternoon, White Elk finally told Caleb the rest.
The fourth man from the photograph had stayed.
His name was Samuel Morgan.
Caleb's uncle.
Caleb stared at the chief.
"I don't have an uncle named Samuel."
"You did."
White Elk sat beneath the cottonwood.
"He was your father's younger brother."
Caleb shook his head.
"My father said his family was dead."
"Samuel was not dead."
"Where is he?"
White Elk looked toward the hills.
"Buried."
Caleb's throat tightened.
"When?"
"Twenty-two years ago."
"What happened?"
"He tried to stop Ward's men."
Caleb stood.
"My father never told me."
"Your father was ashamed."
Caleb turned away.
"Of what?"
White Elk's voice softened.
"Samuel died because Thomas hesitated."
The words struck Caleb harder than any blow.
"My father killed his own brother?"
"No."
"Then why?"
"Because when the shooting began, Thomas ran."
Caleb closed his eyes.
His father had always told him that courage meant staying when everyone else ran.
Now the meaning seemed cruel.
"Why did Samuel stay?"
White Elk looked toward the mountains.
"Because he learned something your father did not."
"What?"
"Land is not owned by the man who signs a paper."
White Elk touched the earth.
"It belongs to those who protect it."
Caleb sat again.
"Why did you keep my father's letters?"
"Because Samuel asked us to."
Caleb looked up.
"Samuel knew you?"
"He lived among us."
"Why?"
"Because after Thomas left, Samuel understood that Ward would return."
"And he stayed to protect the spring."
White Elk nodded.
"Until he died."
Caleb looked at the map.
Suddenly he understood the red line.
It did not mark a road.
It marked a promise.
The Enemy Returns
They arrived at the valley three days later.
The hidden spring was larger than Caleb expected.
Water flowed from beneath a limestone shelf into a clear pool.
Grass grew around it.
Cottonwoods rose along the banks.
It was a piece of paradise hidden inside a land that seemed determined to become desert.
Caleb understood immediately why someone would kill for it.
Then they saw the smoke.
Elena reached for her rifle.
"Someone is here."
Caleb studied the ridge.
Five riders appeared.
Then seven.
Then ten.
White Elk had followed them.
His face became grim.
"Elias Ward's men."
Caleb stared.
"But Ward is dead."
"His son isn't."
A rider moved forward.
He was broad-shouldered, dressed in a black coat.