Silence.
Then Charles answered.
“Dead.”
Luke felt something inside him break.
“You're lying.”
“He died because he wouldn't listen.”
Luke raised his revolver.
His father continued.
“You think you're the only one who lost something? Elias destroyed this family. He wanted to expose men who could have made us rich. He was foolish.”
Luke's voice shook.
“He was your son.”
Charles said nothing.
Then Sheriff Briggs laughed.
“Enough of this. Give us the journal.”
Luke looked at Nora.
She was holding the evidence against her chest.
He knew what would happen if they surrendered.
The truth would disappear.
And so would they.
Luke stepped into the doorway.
“No.”
Briggs fired.
The bullet struck the wooden frame.
Luke returned fire.
The tunnel erupted with gunshots.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Nora crawled behind the desk, clutching the journal and letters.
Luke fired twice, forcing Briggs and the other men back.
Then a second shot rang out.
Charles Harper fell to the ground.
Luke froze.
His father lay motionless in the tunnel, blood spreading across his coat.
For one terrible moment, Luke could not move.
Then he heard Nora shout.
“Luke! The tunnel!”
A section of the ceiling had begun to collapse.
The wooden supports groaned.
Stones crashed onto the floor.
Luke grabbed Nora's hand and pulled her toward the storage room.
Behind them, Sheriff Briggs shouted orders.
Charles lay in the dust.
And somewhere in the darkness beyond the collapsing tunnel, a man began to scream.
The mine was coming down.
The first stone struck the floor with a sound like a cannon blast.
Luke dragged Nora through the wooden doorway just as another section of the ceiling collapsed behind them. Dust filled the passage, choking the air and turning the lantern light into a dull yellow haze.
“Keep moving!” he shouted.
Nora stumbled, clutching the journal beneath her coat. Luke caught her around the waist and pulled her forward.
Behind them, Sheriff Briggs was shouting orders. Men cursed in the darkness. Somewhere beneath the falling rock, a horse screamed.
Then came a voice Luke recognized.
“Luke!”
Charles.
His father was still alive.
Luke stopped.
Nora seized his arm. “We have to go!”
He turned toward the blocked passage. The man who had spent three years allowing him to believe his brother was dead lay somewhere beneath the collapsing roof.
Luke could have kept running.
He could have left Charles to the consequences of his own decisions.
But he heard his father's voice again.
“Luke, please!”
Something inside him gave way.
He shoved the journal into Nora's hands.
“Take it to the entrance. Find Amos. Tell him to get help.”
“Luke, no!”
“Go!”
Before she could argue, he turned and ran back into the dust.
The passage was almost completely blocked. A wooden beam had fallen across the entrance, and several heavy stones rested on top of it. Luke dropped to his knees and began pulling pieces of rock away with his bare hands.
“Father!”
A weak groan answered.
Luke found Charles pinned beneath a broken support. Blood covered one side of his face. His left leg was trapped beneath a heavy timber.
For a moment, Luke stared at him.
The man looked smaller than he remembered.
Not the powerful rancher who had once commanded an entire valley, but an old, frightened man whose decisions had finally caught up with him.
“Don't move,” Luke said.
Charles tried to speak.
Luke ignored him and pushed his shoulder beneath the beam.
Pain shot through his back.
The timber barely moved.
He tried again.
This time, it shifted just enough for Charles to pull his leg free.
Another crash sounded behind them.
The ceiling was coming down.
Luke grabbed his father beneath the arms and dragged him toward the storage room.
Charles cried out.
“Leave me!”
Luke gritted his teeth.
“I'm not losing another brother.”
They reached the wooden door just as the passage collapsed completely.
For several seconds, Luke lay on the floor, struggling to breathe.
Charles was beside him, barely conscious.
Then, from somewhere beyond the sealed passage, Luke heard a sound that made his blood turn cold.
A man was laughing.
Sheriff Briggs.
The sheriff had found another way out.
And he had taken the only remaining lantern.
Luke sat up.
“Damn him.”
Charles caught his sleeve.
“Luke.”
“What?”
His father struggled to speak.
“He knows where Elias is.”
Luke froze.
“What did you say?”