"Most men don't warn people about danger while creating it."
Sheriff Reed stepped forward.
"Careful, Walker."
Cole looked at him.
"Wasn't talking to you."
The sheriff's jaw tightened.
Vane smiled again.
"You'll learn, Mr. Walker, that Mercy Creek has its own way of doing things."
Cole held his gaze.
"So does a graveyard."
Vane left.
Clara watched him go.
"You just made an enemy."
Cole mounted Ranger.
"Seems I already had one."
That night, shots were fired at Bennett Ranch.
Cole was ready.
He and Clara crouched behind the stone wall near the barn.
Three riders approached.
Then four.
Cole waited.
Clara whispered.
"How many?"
"Four."
"Can you handle them?"
"No."
She looked surprised.
Cole added:
"But they don't know that."
He fired.
The first rider fell.
Clara fired from behind the wall.
The second outlaw disappeared behind a horse.
The remaining two turned and fled.
Cole mounted Ranger.
"Stay here."
Clara grabbed his arm.
"Where are you going?"
"After them."
"Alone?"
Cole looked down at her hand.
Then at her face.
"Yes."
She released him.
"Come back."
Cole nodded.
He did not know why those two words mattered.
But they did.
The Man Who Wouldn't Run
Cole followed the outlaws for nearly two hours.
Their trail led west.
He found their camp beside a dry creek bed.
There were six horses.
Six men.
And a box stamped with the initials S.V.
Cole waited until dawn.
Then he rode back.
Sheriff Reed was waiting outside Mercy Creek.
"You followed them."
"Yes."
"Where?"
"West."
"Did you find evidence?"
Cole looked at him.
"You already know."
Reed's face hardened.
"Watch yourself."
Cole leaned forward.
"Three women were kidnapped."
"They were recovered."
"Their wells were sabotaged."
"That's a civil matter."
"Their husbands were murdered."
"Unproven."
Cole stared at him.
"How much is Vane paying you?"
The sheriff reached for his gun.
Cole's hand moved first.
His revolver appeared in an instant.
The sheriff froze.
Cole lowered the weapon.
"That was a question."
"You should leave Mercy Creek."
Cole smiled faintly.
"Everyone keeps telling me that."
"Because you'll die if you stay."
"Maybe."
Cole turned his horse.
"Then I suppose I better stay."
The Secret Beneath the Ground
Evelyn had spent years studying her husband's papers.
Now she spread them across the table.
"There is an underground river beneath all three ranches."
Cole studied the diagrams.
"Not a river."
"What?"
"An aquifer."
Evelyn frowned.
"What's the difference?"
"A river moves through a channel. An aquifer holds water in layers of rock."
She looked impressed.
"You know geology?"
"My father was a surveyor."
Cole paused.
"He died when I was young."
Rose asked quietly:
"Your mother?"
"Same year."
Clara looked at him.
For the first time, she saw something beneath his guarded expression.
Pain.
Not fresh pain.
Old pain.
The kind that had learned how to live inside a man.
Evelyn pointed to another document.
"Look here."
The paper showed the original land grants.
The three ranches had once belonged to one large parcel.
At the bottom was a signature.
Walter Vane.
Cole's eyes narrowed.
"Silas's father."
"Exactly."
Rose whispered:
"Then this has been planned for years."
Cole nodded.
"And Silas isn't trying to buy the ranches."
Clara understood.
"He wants to take them."
"Yes."
The Night of the Fire
The fire began after midnight.
Clara woke to the smell of smoke.
She ran outside.
The barn was burning.
"Cole!"
He was already there.
He had been sleeping beneath the porch.
He rushed toward the barn.
Inside were twelve horses.
Cole broke the door.
"Get them out!"
Clara ran behind him.
They opened stalls one by one.
The horses screamed.
Smoke filled the building.
A beam collapsed.
Cole pushed Clara aside.
The beam struck his shoulder.