The air became damp.
Cold.
Metallic.
After nearly an hour, they reached a cavern.
Clara raised the lantern.
The walls glittered.
Silver.
More than she had imagined.
Enough to make Silas Crowe rich beyond anything Mercy Creek had ever seen.
Elias looked at the walls.
"My mother was right."
Clara smiled.
"We have proof."
A gunshot echoed through the cavern.
The lantern fell.
Darkness.
Men shouted.
Elias pushed Clara behind a rock.
"Stay here."
"No."
"Clara."
"I can help."
"You can help by staying alive."
Gunfire erupted.
Elias fired back.
The cavern filled with smoke.
Clara crawled toward the fallen lantern.
A man appeared above her.
She struck him with the metal handle of her medical bag.
He collapsed.
She grabbed the lantern.
"Elias!"
He looked over.
She threw it toward him.
He caught it.
Then the mountain shook.
A blast.
Crowe's men had planted dynamite.
The ceiling cracked.
"Run!"
They sprinted through the tunnel.
Rocks crashed behind them.
Elias grabbed Clara's hand.
They reached the entrance just as the passage collapsed.
They fell into the snow.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Clara laughed.
Elias looked at her.
"What's funny?"
"We're alive."
"That isn't funny."
"It is to me."
He stared at her.
Then, unexpectedly, he laughed too.
It was the first time Clara had heard him laugh.
It changed his entire face.
For a moment, the mountain man disappeared.
There was only a tired man sitting beside a woman in the snow.
Then a rifle shot struck the ground.
They looked up.
Silas Crowe stood on the ridge.
He held a revolver.
"You should have stayed out of my way," he called.
Elias stood.
Crowe aimed.
Clara stepped beside Elias.
Crowe laughed.
"Again?"
Clara looked at him.
"Again."
Crowe fired.
Elias shoved Clara aside.
The bullet struck his chest.
He fell.
Clara screamed.
Crowe turned his horse.
"Take him."
His men rode down the slope.
Clara knelt beside Elias.
Blood spread across his coat.
But he was breathing.
"You're not dying," she whispered.
His eyes opened.
"Wasn't planning to."
She laughed through tears.
"You idiot."
"Probably."
They watched Crowe disappear.
Clara looked at the blood.
Then at the town below.
"We need to finish this."
Elias nodded.
"Yes."
Silas Crowe expected fear.
Instead, he found rebellion.
By the time he returned to Mercy Creek, every road into town was blocked.
Farmers stood with rifles.
Shopkeepers had closed their doors.
The church bell rang continuously.
The sheriff stood in the center of the square.
Crowe dismounted.
"What is this?"
The sheriff removed his badge.
"This is over."
Crowe stared.
"You work for me."
"I did."
"You're nothing without me."
The sheriff looked around.
"Maybe."
Then he dropped the badge.
"But I'm not alone anymore."
Crowe reached for his gun.
A rifle clicked behind him.
Amos Reed.
"Don't."
Crowe froze.
Then he smiled.
"You think you can arrest me?"
"No," Amos said.
"We can."
Elias stepped from the crowd.
He was pale.
Blood stained his coat.
But he was standing.
Crowe stared at him.
"You should be dead."
Elias shook his head.
"You've been saying that for nine years."
Crowe raised his pistol.
Clara stepped forward.
"Don't."
Elias looked at her.
Crowe fired.
The sheriff tackled him before he could fire again.
The pistol fell.
Crowe was arrested.
For the first time in Mercy Creek's history, Silas Crowe was taken to jail without anyone opening the door for him.
The investigation lasted months.
The mine became public property.
The families whose land had been stolen received it back.
The survey proving Elias's claim was entered into the county records.
And the story of Thomas Vale and Daniel Bell was finally told.
Clara learned that her father had not been a coward.
He had been a witness.
He had known the truth.
And he had died trying to protect it.
Elias attended the memorial service.
He stood at the back of the church.
Clara walked over.
"You could sit."
"I prefer standing."
"You always do."
He looked at the photograph of Daniel Bell.
"He was a good man."
Clara nodded.
"You knew him better than I did."
"He would have been proud of you."
She swallowed.
"Why?"
"Because you did what he did."
"What?"
"You stepped between a powerful man and someone who couldn't defend himself."