"Caleb Voss."
Samuel felt the name like a stone dropping into his stomach.
Caleb Voss.
The richest rancher in the territory.
A man who had purchased thousands of acres during the drought.
A man who had bought failing ranches for pennies.
A man who had recently offered Samuel three times the value of Black Hollow Ranch.
Samuel had refused.
The stranger raised his rifle.
"Tell your people to leave."
Samuel stared at him.
"No."
The man's smile disappeared.
"Then you'll lose more than your cattle."
Samuel mounted his horse.
He didn't answer.
He rode home beneath a darkening sky.
Behind him, the stranger remained beside the hidden water.
Watching.
Waiting.
And Samuel understood something terrible.
The well at his ranch had not simply gone dry.
Someone had found a way to control the water beneath the entire valley.
And Caleb Voss intended to own it.
The Map in the Floorboards
Samuel returned to Black Hollow Ranch after midnight.
Nobody slept.
The cattle had been moved into the lower pasture where a shallow emergency tank still held some water.
His daughter Clara waited on the porch.
She was thirty-two, intelligent, stubborn, and far less willing than her father to accept bad news.
"What happened?"
Samuel dismounted.
"Someone shot at me."
Clara froze.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Why?"
"Water."
She stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
Samuel looked toward the house.
"Get the old box."
"What box?"
"The one Mother kept."
Clara's expression changed.
"You mean the cedar box?"
"Yes."
She disappeared inside.
A few minutes later she returned carrying a small wooden chest.
Samuel hadn't seen it in twenty years.
His mother had forbidden him to open it.
She had said it contained things that were better left buried.
Now Samuel understood.
He opened the box.
Inside were letters.
A compass.
Several old photographs.
And a folded map.
Samuel spread it across the porch table.
The map showed the entire valley.
Black Hollow.
Dry Creek.
Red Mesa.
Cedar Ridge.
And beneath them, a series of blue lines.
Underground water channels.
Clara stared.
"What's that?"
"Water."
"Under our ranch?"
"Under all of it."
Samuel traced the largest line.
It ran directly beneath Black Hollow.
Then toward the canyon.
Then toward the Voss property.
Clara looked up.
"How did your mother know?"
"My grandfather made this map."
"When?"
"1911."
She looked confused.
"Why hide it?"
Samuel read the note written on the back.
His grandfather's handwriting was unmistakable.
The water beneath Black Hollow does not belong to any man. If someone attempts to control it, the valley will die.
Clara read it twice.
Then she whispered:
"Voss knows."
Samuel nodded.
"That's why he's buying the ranches."
Clara looked at the map.
"He's not buying land."
"No."
"He's buying the water."
Samuel folded the map.
"We need help."
"From who?"
"There was one man my father trusted."
"Who?"
Samuel hesitated.
"Daniel Cross."
Clara's eyes widened.
"The gunslinger?"
"That's what people called him."
"I thought he was dead."
"So did everyone else."
Samuel mounted his horse.
"Where are you going?"
"To find him."
Daniel Cross lived in a mining town three days east.