By sunrise, half of Oak Haven knew someone had fired into the Dalton cabin.
By eight o'clock, the other half had heard an improved version involving six gunmen, a dynamite bomb, and Silas Boone killing three attackers with his bare hands.
Josie did not care.
She had stopped being embarrassed by gossip.
Fear had burned that weakness out of her.
She dressed the children carefully.
"Why are we all going?" Wyatt asked.
"Because Reed keeps trying to divide this family."
She buttoned Seth's shirt.
"Today he gets to see us together."
Silas entered carrying a rifle.
Josie looked at it.
"Planning a war?"
"Planning not to lose one."
They rode into town with Arthur's journal hidden beneath Josie's dress.
Sheriff Cobb met them outside the courthouse.
His expression was grim.
"Kane and Pike are still locked up."
"Good," Silas said.
"They're talking."
Josie stopped.
"What did they say?"
"Kane says Reed paid them."
Her heart pounded.
"He'll testify?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"He wants immunity."
Silas snorted.
"For kidnapping children?"
Cobb shrugged.
"I didn't say he'd get it."
The sheriff lowered his voice.
"There's more. One of Reed's former mine supervisors came to me last night. Says Arthur complained about support timbers being removed from his work section two days before the collapse."
Josie's breath caught.
"Removed?"
"Deliberately."
"Who ordered it?"
"He doesn't know."
Silas did.
"Reed."
Cobb shook his head.
"Knowing and proving are different things."
Josie touched the journal beneath her dress.
"Then we'll prove what we can."
The mineral claim office occupied a narrow room beside the assay shop.
Josie had barely stepped inside when Clement Reed appeared.
He looked as though he had not slept.
"Mrs. Dalton."
"Clement."
His gaze moved to Silas.
"Still inserting yourself into matters that aren't yours?"
Silas leaned against the wall.
"Getting to be a habit."
Reed turned toward the clerk.
"You will not process any mineral filing associated with Dalton property."
The clerk blinked.
"Sir?"
"The bank holds liens."
"No longer," Josie said.
Reed's eyes snapped toward her.
She removed the deed.
"Paid and transferred."
Reed smiled.
"Surface rights do not automatically establish mineral rights."
"You're right."
Josie removed Arthur's original homestead papers.
"He retained them."
Reed's face changed.
Just slightly.
But enough.
Silas noticed.
Josie did too.
The clerk examined the documents.
"Looks valid."
Reed stepped closer.
"You have no proof of a mineral discovery."
Josie placed the ore sample on the counter.
"Assay it."
The clerk stared.
Reed stared harder.
The assayer was called.
He chipped a portion from the stone.
An hour later, the result came back.
Rich silver-lead ore.
Exceptionally rich.
Whispers spread through the building.
Then outside.
Within another hour, the entire town knew.
The fat widow everyone had mocked owned land sitting over a potentially valuable silver vein.
Mrs. Harriet Montgomery suddenly appeared with fresh biscuits.
Josie almost laughed in her face.
Instead she gave the biscuits to her children.
By noon, Reed requested a private meeting.
Josie refused.
"Anything you say can be said in front of Silas."
Reed's mouth twisted.
"Very well."
He closed the bank office door.
"Ten thousand dollars."
Josie stared.
"What?"
"For the Dalton property."
Silas remained silent.
Reed continued.
"Cash."
Josie thought of the flour she had rationed.
The patched shoes.
The fear of winter.
Ten thousand dollars was unimaginable.
"Why so much if you don't know what's under it?"
Reed's smile disappeared.
"Twenty thousand."
Silas looked at her.
Josie stared at Reed.
"How long have you known?"
"Known what?"
"That Arthur found silver."
Reed sat back.
"I'll make one final offer."
He wrote a figure.
$30,000.
Josie almost stopped breathing.
Thirty thousand dollars.
Her children would never be hungry again.
They could leave Oak Haven.
Buy a farm somewhere green.
Hire teachers.
Give Pearl a future.
Reed pushed the paper toward her.
"Sign."
Silas said nothing.
Josie looked at him.
He gave no signal.
No instruction.
The choice was hers.
That mattered.
Josie looked down at Reed's offer.
Then she remembered Clara tied inside the prospector's shack.
The bullet through her kitchen window.
Arthur's final journal entry.
"Did you kill my husband?"
Reed froze.
"Careful."
"Did you?"
"You're emotional."
"That's not an answer."
"I had nothing to do with Arthur's accident."
"Then why are you afraid of his journal?"
For the first time, Reed lost control.
His eyes widened.
Josie knew immediately she had struck the truth.
"What journal?"
She smiled.
"Thank you."
Reed stood.
"What have you got?"
"Enough."
He walked around the desk.
Silas straightened.
That ended Reed's advance.
Josie folded the offer.
Then tore it in half.
Thirty thousand dollars became four pieces of paper.
Reed went white.
"You foolish woman."
"Maybe."
She dropped the pieces on his desk.
"But I'm not for sale."
Outside, the crowd watched her emerge.
Mrs. Montgomery hurried over.
"Josephine, I always said you were a resourceful woman."
Josie stared at her.
"You laughed when they auctioned Wyatt."
The woman's smile disappeared.
"I was merely—"
"You laughed."
Josie walked past her.
That afternoon, she and Silas climbed to the ravine.
Arthur's map led them to a granite outcrop hidden behind brush.
There, almost invisible beneath loose stone, was an opening.
A narrow prospect tunnel.
Silas lit a lantern.
"You stay outside."
Josie laughed.
"No."
"Could be unstable."
"My husband died underground. You think I'm letting you disappear into a hole alone?"
Silas sighed.
"You're exhausting."
"So I've heard."
They entered.
The tunnel descended gradually.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Then the lantern caught something embedded in the wall.
A band of dark gray ore crossed the rock.
Silas stopped.
"Arthur found it."
"Is it valuable?"
"Could be."
"How valuable?"
Silas examined the vein.
"If it continues? Enough."
"Enough for what?"
"Everything."
Josie leaned against the wall.
Her eyes filled.
Arthur had been right.
His impossible lucky break had finally come.
Too late for him.
But perhaps not too late for his children.
Then Silas noticed a wooden support.
Fresh saw marks.
"Don't move."
Josie froze.
"What?"
He pointed.
Someone had cut halfway through the timber.
Another support had been loosened.
The tunnel was rigged to collapse.
Silas extinguished the lantern flame.
"We leave. Now."
A sound came from outside.
Stone scraping.
Then voices.
Silas swore.
Someone was sealing the entrance.
They ran.
By the time they reached the opening, rocks were tumbling down.
Silas pushed Josie back.
The entrance collapsed.
Darkness swallowed them.
Josie's breathing became ragged.
"No."
"Easy."
"I can't breathe."
"Yes, you can."
"I can't—"
Silas found her in the darkness.
His hands closed around hers.
"Listen to me."
She tried.
"Air's still moving."
"How do you know?"
"Feel it."
He lifted her hand.
A faint current touched her fingers.
Another opening.
Somewhere.
They relit the lantern.
The tunnel behind them stretched deeper.
They followed the airflow.
Josie forced herself not to imagine thousands of tons of mountain above her head.
After forty minutes, they found a narrow shaft leading upward.
Silas climbed first.
Then lowered rope.
Josie looked at the opening.
It was small.
Her face burned.
"I won't fit."
Silas looked down.
"You will."
"You don't know that."
"I do."
"Silas."
"Josie."
His voice softened.
"Your body carried seven children. Hauled water. Fought a kidnapper with a kettle. Put out a barn fire."
She stared upward.
"Don't tell me a little hole in a mountain gets the final word."
Josie almost laughed.
Then she climbed.
It hurt.
Her dress tore.
Rock scraped her hips and shoulders.
Twice she believed she was stuck.
Each time Silas talked her upward.
Finally, his hands reached down.
Josie grabbed them.
He pulled.
She burst into daylight.
For several seconds she lay on the ground laughing and crying simultaneously.
Silas lay beside her.
Then hoofbeats sounded below.
Three riders fled from the ravine.
Josie recognized one immediately.
Clement Reed's bank manager.
Mr. Horace Bell.
Silas stood.
"Now we've got a witness."
"Only if we catch him."
Silas smiled.
It was not a pleasant smile.
"I'll catch him."
He was halfway to his horse when Josie called his name.
He turned.
"Come back."
Something passed between them.
Something neither had named.
Silas nodded.
"I will."
But he never reached Oak Haven that night.
His horse returned alone after sunset.
Blood covered the saddle.