“You want papers?” she called through the door. “Then stop frightening us and send someone to the porch where we can see his hands.”
Her husband stared at her as if she'd gone mad.
“You don't negotiate with those men,” he whispered.
“I'm not negotiating,” she whispered back. “I'm making them stay where the windows give us a view.”
Outside, the leader laughed. “Who are you?”
“The woman who keeps the accounts in this house. And I won't hand over anything to a man who cannot explain why the figures don't add up.”
The laughter stopped.
For one useful second, nobody moved. Then the visitor staggered to his feet and pointed toward a small opening high beside the back roof. It was a ventilation shutter overlooking the switchback trail.
“There are freight workers at the lower camp,” he whispered. “Two lantern flashes from that opening are our agreed distress signal. If the snow has eased enough for them to see, they'll fetch the sheriff.”
The mountain man nodded. The woman handed him the lantern, and he climbed the short ladder. He showed the light twice through the narrow opening, then shuttered it. There was no answering signal.
A plank cracked near the rear door.
The mountain man came down and stood between the intruders and the two people beside the stove. One of the riders forced the back latch and pushed inward. The mountain man caught the door with his shoulder, drove the intruder backward, and slammed the heavy timber bar into place. The attacker cursed, stumbled onto the porch, and did not attempt it again.
The next voice came from the front. “We'll burn you out.”
“Then you'll burn the records you came for,” the woman answered. “And the judge will learn precisely who was so desperate to destroy them.”
The bluff held only because she had made herself sound certain. Her hands were trembling badly enough that she gripped the edge of the table to steady them.
A long minute passed. Then the leader shouted that he'd return with men who knew how to open a locked cabin.
Hooves moved away into the dark.
Her husband waited before lowering the rifle. Nobody believed the danger was over. Still, the threat had retreated, and the cabin remained standing.