Chapter 10 - The Night the Herd Disappeared
Gideon survived.
He woke the next morning in one of Ironstone’s spare rooms with Harrison standing beside the bed and Josephine blocking the doorway.
His left eye was swollen.
His pride appeared worse.
Harrison spoke first.
“Who did this?”
Gideon laughed painfully.
“You care?”
“No.”
“Fair.”
Josephine folded her arms.
“The ledger.”
Gideon looked at her.
“What about it?”
“You said it proves everything.”
“I said things?”
“You did.”
He closed his eyes.
Josephine waited.
Eventually he whispered, “Water records.”
Harrison leaned closer.
“What water records?”
“Your father found a second spring.”
Harrison froze.
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Where?”
“Northwest section.”
“That land barely grazes cattle.”
“Because nobody knew what was under it.”
Gideon looked toward Josephine.
“Old geological survey estimated enough groundwater to support a rail town.”
Now Matador’s obsession made complete sense.
Rail corridor.
Water.
Cattle shipping.
A future town.
Ironstone was not worth two hundred thousand.
It could be worth far more.
“Where’s the survey?” Josephine asked.
“Ledger.”
“The missing 1888 book?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Gideon hesitated.
Harrison stepped closer.
“You stole it.”
“To protect myself.”
“Where?”
“Langdon house.”
Cordelia, standing just outside, closed her eyes.
Gideon continued.
“Hidden beneath floorboards in the old office.”
Josephine asked the harder question.
“Why did Vane attack you?”
“Because I told him I wanted out.”
Harrison laughed bitterly.
“After stealing from me for a year?”
Gideon looked ashamed for perhaps the first time.
“At first it was money.”
“Four thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
“You helped bankrupt us.”
“I told myself Matador would buy you out. You’d be rich enough. Nobody would lose jobs.”
“And then?”
“Vane burned the pump.”
Gideon's mouth tightened.
“I never agreed to that.”
Josephine believed him.
Not because he deserved trust.
Because guilt sounded different from lies.
“Did you order the rustlers?”
“Yes.”
Harrison lunged.
Josephine stepped between them.
“Harrison.”
“He tried to steal my herd.”
“And now he can testify.”
That stopped him.
Gideon looked at Josephine.
“You’d protect me?”
“No.”
Her voice was cold.
“I’d protect the truth.”
Gideon nodded slowly.
“The ledger has letters inside it. From Vane. Bank manager too.”
Harrison stared.
“Why keep them?”
“Insurance.”
Josephine almost laughed.
Thieves trusted each other exactly as much as they deserved.
Harrison sent Judson and Caleb to retrieve the ledger with Cordelia.
They returned after dark.
Empty-handed.
The floorboards had been torn up.
The ledger was gone.
Gideon cursed.
Josephine asked, “Who else knew?”
“Vane.”
“Anyone at Ironstone?”
“No.”
Harrison looked through the window.
“Then Vane has it.”
Gideon shook his head.
“If Vane had it, he wouldn’t have beaten me asking where it was.”
Silence.
Somebody else had taken it.
Before they could investigate, a cowboy rode into the yard shouting.
“HERD’S GONE!”
Harrison ran outside.
“What herd?”
“South pasture.”
Nearly six hundred cattle had vanished.
Fence intact.
Gate open.
Josephine felt her stomach drop.
Six hundred cattle could not disappear quietly without help.
Harrison mounted immediately.
Josephine grabbed his reins.
“Wait.”
“For what?”
“Think.”
“I don’t have time.”
“Exactly why you need to think.”
She looked at the gate.
“If thieves wanted cattle, they would cut fence away from the house.”
Harrison followed her reasoning.
“Someone used the gate.”
“And knew the night watch.”
Judson said, “Tom?”
Tom shook his head desperately.
“Not me.”
Josephine believed him.
Gideon appeared on the porch, barely able to stand.
“They’re not stealing them.”
Harrison turned.
“What?”
“They’re driving them west.”
“Why?”
Gideon smiled grimly.
“To make it look like you sold collateral.”
Harrison went pale.
The cattle secured part of the bank loan.
If they vanished before the bank investigator arrived, Ironstone could appear guilty of fraud.
“They don’t need the cattle,” Josephine said.
“They need Harrison arrested.”
Gideon nodded.
The game had changed.
Matador no longer believed Ironstone would quietly collapse.
So they intended to destroy Harrison personally.
Josephine looked at the western horizon.
“How long ago?”
“Maybe four hours,” the cowboy said.
“They can’t move six hundred cattle fast at night.”
“No.”
Harrison swung into the saddle.
“This time you’re not stopping me.”
“I’m not trying.”
Josephine turned toward the barn.
He frowned.
“What are you doing?”
“Going with you.”
“No.”
She kept walking.
“Josephine.”
She stopped.
“You told me last week I changed this ranch.”
“You did.”
“Then stop deciding I’m part of it only when convenient.”
“This isn’t a kitchen.”
“I noticed.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“So is bankruptcy.”
He stared.
Judson cleared his throat.
“She’s going, boss.”
Harrison looked at him.
Judson shrugged.
“You know she is.”
Thirty minutes later, Josephine Pickett rode west beside Harrison Croft.
She hated horses.
Her thighs hurt.
Her back hurt.
Every bone she possessed protested.
She rode anyway.
The tracks were easy to follow.
Six hundred cattle left evidence.
Near midnight they saw campfire light.
Harrison raised a hand.
The men stopped.
Below them in a shallow valley, the stolen herd rested.
Seven riders guarded it.
Josephine recognized one.
Silas Vane.
Harrison whispered, “What the hell is he doing here?”
Josephine understood.
“Making sure it works.”
They did not confront them.
Instead Harrison sent Caleb racing toward the sheriff.
Josephine and the others waited on the ridge.
At dawn, Vane’s men began moving the herd.
That was when sheriff’s deputies appeared from the south.
Vane tried to flee.
Judson and two cowboys blocked the trail.
Nobody fired.
Nobody needed to.
Within an hour, the herd belonged to Ironstone again.
Vane stood beside his horse while the sheriff searched his saddlebag.
Inside were forged cattle-sale papers bearing Harrison Croft’s signature.
The sheriff looked at him.
“This yours?”
Vane smiled.
“No.”
Then Josephine noticed something sticking from beneath his coat.
Leather.
Old.
She stepped closer.
“The ledger.”
Vane’s hand moved.
The sheriff caught his arm.
Josephine pulled the book free.
1888.
The missing Ironstone accounts.
Inside were letters.
Bank instructions.
Railway maps.
Water surveys.
And a signed agreement promising Gideon Furlong twenty thousand dollars once Harrison defaulted and Matador acquired Ironstone.
Vane’s face finally lost its calm.
Josephine held the ledger against her chest.
The sun rose over the valley behind her.
Harrison looked at her and smiled.
Not because the fight was finished.
It was far from finished.
But because for the first time, they had proof.
What none of them yet understood was that the ledger contained another surprise.
On its final pages was a land agreement signed by Harrison’s father twenty years earlier.
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And it meant Ironstone Ranch was much larger than Harrison had ever known.
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