At two in the morning, a shadow entered camp.
Clem.
He slipped into his cabin.
Stayed three minutes.
Then emerged quickly.
He carried the false map tube.
Wyatt stepped into lantern light.
“Evening, Clem.”
Clem froze.
Another hand appeared behind him.
Then Jeb.
Clem’s shoulders dropped.
“You searched my room.”
Jeb answered:
“Yes.”
“Hattie?”
Jeb’s jaw tightened.
“You leave her out of this.”
Clem laughed bitterly.
“She started it.”
“No.”
Jeb stepped closer.
“You started it when you sold me to Barrows.”
Clem looked away.
Jeb’s anger surfaced.
“You saved my life.”
Clem met his eyes.
“I know.”
“Why?”
That was the only question Jeb truly cared about.
Clem looked exhausted.
“Because I was tired of being your foreman.”
Jeb stared.
“What?”
“Nine years.”
“I ran half this ranch.”
“Fixed your mistakes.”
“Managed men.”
“Kept cattle alive.”
“You owned everything.”
“I got wages.”
Jeb looked almost wounded.
“You never asked for partnership.”
Clem laughed.
“You think men like you give partnerships because someone asks?”
Jeb had no answer.
Clem continued.
“Barrows offered money.”
“Then more.”
“Then land after the sale.”
Hattie stepped from the shadows.
Clem saw her.
His expression hardened.
“You.”
Hattie said nothing.
Clem looked toward Jeb.
“She turned you against me.”
Jeb’s face changed.
“No.”
“She showed me numbers.”
“Your numbers.”
Clem spat into the dust.
“You think she cares about you?”
Jeb’s hand curled.
Hattie moved beside him.
Clem smiled cruelly.
“Woman arrives hungry for a roof and suddenly she’s in your books, your kitchen, your bed soon enough.”
Jeb stepped forward.
Hattie caught his arm.
“Don’t.”
Clem laughed.
“There.”
“She runs you already.”
Hattie looked directly at him.
“No.”
“I stop him from making stupid decisions.”
“Something nobody did for you.”
Clem’s smile vanished.
The livestock inspector emerged from the bunkhouse doorway.
Clem’s expression finally collapsed.
The investigator had heard enough.
The false map tube was recovered.
Clem was not beaten.
Not dragged behind a horse.
Not shot.
He was detained until the territorial marshal arrived the next day.
That disappointed some ranch hands.
Hattie considered it progress.
Under questioning, Clem eventually cooperated.
Not nobly.
Strategically.
Barrows had documents.
Clem wanted leniency.
He explained the scheme.
Six years earlier, Barrows commissioned geological work along Iron Ridge’s northern boundary after coal fragments appeared near a washed-out creek bank.
Surveyors found a thick seam.
Possibly multiple seams.
The deposit extended beneath Jeb’s land.
Barrows could not legally extract it without ownership or rights.
Jeb had refused to sell.
So Barrows began waiting.
Clem became useful.
First through inflated contracts.
Then poor supplies.