She stared.
"No."
"Take it."
"I can't."
"Yes, you can."
"Why?"
Jacob didn't answer.
Ellen looked at him carefully.
"You know something."
Jacob sat on the fence.
"My name bothers you."
She went still.
"Yesterday when I introduced myself."
"I was surprised."
"Why?"
Ellen hesitated.
"My husband knew you."
Jacob frowned.
"What's his name?"
"Thomas Harper."
Jacob stared at her.
"Tom?"
She nodded.
The desert seemed to disappear.
Jacob remembered Thomas Harper.
Tall.
Red-haired.
Always laughing.
They had ridden together during Jacob's outlaw years.
Tom had left the gang after a robbery turned violent.
"What happened to him?"
Ellen looked toward the house.
"He died three years ago."
Jacob swallowed.
"How?"
"Shot."
"By who?"
"Vale's men."
Jacob's face hardened.
Ellen continued.
"Tom discovered they were diverting water from smaller springs into Black Canyon. He said the drought wasn't entirely natural."
Jacob stood.
"What?"
"Some of the wells should still have water."
"Where?"
"He had a map."
Jacob's heart accelerated.
"The Avery survey?"
"I don't know."
"Where is it?"
"Missing."
Jacob looked toward the house.
"Did Tom ever talk about me?"
Ellen smiled sadly.
"More than once."
"What did he say?"
"He said you were the best friend he'd ever had."
Jacob looked away.
"He was wrong."
"He also said you would say that."
For several moments neither spoke.
Ben came running from the barn.
"Mr. Reed!"
Jacob forced a smile.
"What?"
"I found something."
The boy held a brass compass.
Jacob recognized it.
Tom's.
On the back were scratched three letters:
J.R.T.
Jacob Reed.
Thomas Harper.
Daniel Mercer.
They had carved those initials one drunken night twenty years earlier.
"Where did you find this?"
"Under the floorboards."
Jacob looked at Ellen.
"Show me."
Inside the barn, Ben pointed toward a loose board.
Jacob lifted it.
Beneath was a small metal box.
Inside lay a notebook.
Tom's notebook.
Jacob opened it.
Pages of measurements.
Water levels.
Sketches.
Then a map.
Not the original survey.
Tom had drawn his own.
Jacob studied the lines.
Black Canyon was connected underground to several wells.
Vale had constructed barriers and diversions that redirected groundwater toward the canyon.
That was why ranch wells were dying.
The drought was real.
But Vale had made it worse.
Ellen whispered:
"Can we prove it?"
Jacob closed the notebook.
"Yes."
"How?"
Jacob looked north.
"By opening the water."
Beneath the Mountain
Daniel refused to help.
"No."
Jacob stood in his blacksmith shop.
"You haven't even heard the plan."
"I heard enough."
"We go into Black Canyon."
"No."
"We find the diversion gate."
"No."
"We open it."
Daniel hammered a horseshoe.
"No."
Jacob waited.
Daniel finally looked up.
"You done?"
"No."
"Then continue."
"Tom found proof."
The hammer stopped.
Jacob placed the notebook on the table.
Daniel opened it.
His face changed.
"Where did you get this?"
"Ellen."
Daniel turned pages.
"Tom knew?"
"He knew everything."
Daniel sat.
"He came to me before he died."
Jacob looked at him.
"What?"
"He asked for help."
"And?"
"I told him no."
Jacob said nothing.
Daniel's voice became quiet.
"My wife was sick. My daughter was six. Vale threatened them."
"So Tom went alone."
"Yes."
"And died."
"Yes."
Daniel closed the notebook.
"I have lived with that every day."
Jacob sat across from him.
"Then help me."
Daniel looked at him.
"We're getting old."
"Speak for yourself."
Daniel laughed.
For the first time, something of the young man Jacob remembered appeared.
"What's the plan?"
Tom's notebook showed an old mining tunnel beneath the northern wall of Black Canyon.
The mine had closed thirty years earlier.
Vale apparently used part of it to control an underground channel.
Jacob and Daniel entered after midnight.
They carried lanterns.
The tunnel descended sharply.
Water dripped from the ceiling.
After nearly an hour, they heard machinery.
They extinguished the lanterns.
Ahead, two men stood beside a massive wooden gate reinforced with iron.
Water thundered behind it.
Daniel whispered:
"Tom was right."
Jacob nodded.
The gate redirected groundwater into a channel leading toward Black Canyon.
If opened, water would return toward the southern aquifer.
Toward Red Mesa.
They waited.
One guard left.
The other sat.
Jacob moved silently.
He came behind the man and struck him.
The guard collapsed.
Daniel reached the gate.
"Locked."
Jacob examined the mechanism.
Iron chain.
Padlock.
He raised his rifle.
Daniel grabbed the barrel.
"You shoot in here, every guard in the canyon hears."
Jacob lowered it.
They searched the room.
No key.
Daniel pointed upward.
A narrow maintenance shaft ran over the gate.
"Can you climb?"
Jacob looked at him.
"Can you?"
"No."
"Then apparently I can."
Jacob climbed.
The shaft was tight.
Below him, water roared.
He reached the other side.
A lever stood there.
He pulled.
Nothing.
Rust.
He tried again.
The mechanism groaned.
Then he heard voices.
Guards.
Daniel whispered:
"Hurry."
Jacob pulled with both hands.
The lever moved.
The gate began to rise.
Water exploded beneath it.
The sound was enormous.
Daniel laughed.
"You did it!"
Then a rifle fired.
Daniel fell.
Jacob jumped down.
"Daniel!"
Blood covered Daniel's leg.
Not fatal.
Jacob dragged him behind machinery.
Three guards entered.
Gunfire filled the tunnel.
Jacob fired once.
A lantern shattered.
Darkness.
Daniel shouted:
"Go!"
"I'm not leaving you."
"Always stubborn."
"Always."
They crawled toward a side passage.
Water began rising behind them.
The old channels were filling.
The mountain itself seemed to awaken.
They emerged from the mine before dawn.
Daniel collapsed.
Jacob carried him to the horses.
Behind them, Black Canyon changed.
The artificial channel overflowed.
Water began moving south underground.
For the first time in years, the aquifer had been released.
At sunrise, Ben Harper screamed.
"Mother!"
Ellen ran outside.
Ben stood beside their well.
Water covered the bottom.
Only inches.
But it was there.
Ellen touched it.
She began crying.
By afternoon, water returned to two neighboring wells.
Then another.
News spread through Red Mesa.
Vale arrived before sunset.
He rode directly to Ellen's ranch with twelve men.
Jacob stood on the porch.
Daniel lay inside recovering.