She held his gaze.
For a long moment, they looked at each other.
Then she nodded.
"I believe you."
His expression broke.
He looked away quickly.
The stranger continued.
The mountain man had been present at the depot because he was trying to collect the original survey books before they were destroyed.
He entered the burning annex.
Tried to reach the custodian.
But falling timber struck him.
His face was badly cut.
He escaped through a side window shortly before the roof collapsed.
When authorities arrived, he was gone.
The construction superintendent claimed the young surveyor had threatened to burn the records rather than allow his work to be questioned.
Other witnesses repeated the accusation.
Some had financial ties to the railroad.
Others were frightened.
The mountain man became a wanted man.
His wife was reported dead in the same fire.
Believing he had lost her and fearing that an arrest would place him in the hands of corrupt officials, he fled into the mountains.
Over time, rumors grew.
People heard that he had killed a man.
Then two.
Then six.
Stories about his scar became stories about violence.
And the former surveyor gradually disappeared beneath the identity of the feared mountain wolf.
The woman looked toward her husband.
He stared at the floor.
She remembered the books on his shelves.
The old surveying manuals.
The maps he sometimes studied when he thought she was asleep.
The questions he refused to answer.
For months, the evidence had been sitting in front of her.
But she had never imagined this.
The stranger coughed.
Then reached toward the leather case.
He opened it carefully.
Inside were several folded documents.
A small notebook.
And an envelope marked with the seal of a territorial attorney.
He handed the envelope to the mountain man.
"Your first wife asked me to bring this."
The mountain man's hands trembled.
He opened the letter.
His eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
His wife watched his expression change.
He read the first paragraph again.
Then whispered, "She thought I was dead."
The wounded visitor nodded.
"Yes."
The mountain man looked up.
"All these years?"
"Until recently."
He stared at the letter.
His wife wanted to ask what it said.
But the mountain man's expression stopped her.
For the first time since she had known him, he looked not merely frightened, but completely lost.
Finally he handed her the paper.