Elias took the man's revolver and kicked it beyond reach. Then he turned to the other two riders.
One was unconscious.
The other was struggling to free himself from his horse's reins.
Elias cut the leather strap with his knife and dragged him away from the animal.
"You work for Crowe?" he asked.
The man spat at his boots.
Elias wiped the saliva away with the edge of his coat.
"That's fine. You can tell me later."
He bound the three men together with their own rope and left them beneath the outcrop. They would survive if they stayed quiet and did not attempt to ride before dawn.
Elias mounted Ranger and returned toward the canyon.
By the time he reached the ridge, the campfire had been extinguished.
The wagon stood abandoned, one wheel broken.
Crowe's men had disappeared.
Elias searched the ground for tracks.
Four riders had gone south.
Two had gone north.
He could not tell whether they had followed Anna and Whitaker.
The thought tightened his chest.
He had spent years believing that the worst thing a man could do was become attached to someone else's fate.
Now, after less than a day in Mercy Crossing, he was beginning to understand the cost of the opposite belief.
He turned Ranger toward the cottonwoods.
The eastern trail was narrow and difficult to follow. It wound through low hills, crossed two dry creek beds, and passed beneath a ridge where the rocks were stained red by iron in the soil.
Elias rode for nearly an hour before he found the first sign of Anna.
A piece of blue cloth had been tied to a thorn bush.
He dismounted and examined it.
The knot was simple, but the placement was deliberate.
Anna had marked the trail.
He followed it north.
At dawn, he reached the spring.
The water emerged from beneath a shelf of limestone and collected in a clear pool before flowing toward the river. Cottonwoods grew along its banks, their leaves trembling in the morning wind.
A small wooden shelter stood near the water.
Beside it lay a pile of survey stakes.
Anna sat beneath a tree, holding a rifle across her lap.
Whitaker stood nearby, studying the ground.
When Elias appeared, Anna rose so quickly that she nearly dropped the weapon.
"You're alive."
"So far."
She crossed the clearing and stopped in front of him.
For a moment, she seemed unable to decide whether to strike him or embrace him.
Then she slapped his shoulder.
"You fool."
Elias looked at her.
"That's fair."
"You said you would make sure they looked in the wrong direction."
"They did."
"Then why did we hear gunfire for twenty minutes?"
"Because they were looking in the wrong direction loudly."
She stared at him.
Then, unexpectedly, she laughed.
It was a short, exhausted sound, but it transformed her face. For the first time since he had met her, she looked her age.
Whitaker approached.
"Mr. Ward, you have my gratitude."
"Save it until we're back in town."
The surveyor held up a small metal marker.
"I found the original boundary stone. It bears the territorial seal and the date of the first land grant. Crowe's survey places it almost half a mile from where it actually stands."
"Can you prove that?"
"With the original deed and a proper examination, yes."
"Then we need to get you to Redstone."
Whitaker nodded.
"I agree."
Anna looked toward the southern hills.
"What about Crowe?"
Elias examined the tracks near the spring.
"He'll come after us."
"How do you know?"
"Because men like him don't accept losing."
He turned toward Ranger.
"We leave now."
But before they could saddle the horses, a voice rose from the edge of the clearing.
"That would be difficult."
Six men emerged from behind the trees.
At their center stood Silas Crowe.
His black hat was gone, and his coat was stained with mud. His face was pale with anger, but his smile remained intact.
Two men held rifles trained on Elias.
Another aimed at Anna.
Crowe stepped forward.
"Mr. Ward. You have caused me a considerable inconvenience."
Elias stood between him and the surveyor.
"That's unfortunate."
Crowe's smile faded.
"Do you know what I find interesting about men like you?"
"No."
"You arrive in a place where nobody knows you. You have no land, no family, no responsibilities. You imagine that makes you dangerous because you have nothing to lose."
He gestured toward the spring.
"But a man with nothing is easy to buy. And a man with nothing to lose is easy to kill."
Elias's hand rested near his revolver.
"Then why are you talking so much?"
For the first time, Crowe looked genuinely angry.
He raised one hand.
A rifle butt struck the back of Elias's head.
The world exploded into light.
Elias fell to his knees.
The last thing he saw before darkness took him was Anna rushing forward and a man catching her by the arm.
Then Crowe's voice drifted through the fading sounds of the spring.
"Take the surveyor. Burn the maps. And leave Ward where he falls."
The Grave That Waited Ten Years
Elias woke to the smell of wet earth.
For several seconds, he did not know where he was.
His head throbbed. His mouth tasted of blood. His hands were tied behind his back, and the ground beneath him was cold enough to seep through his coat.
He tried to sit up.
Pain flared across his skull.
He stopped.
Above him, a narrow strip of gray sky appeared between the branches of two cottonwoods.
The spring.
He was still at the spring.
His first thought was Anna.
His second was Whitaker.
His third was that he had failed.
He rolled onto his side and vomited into the grass.