The first time, he was being carried into a supply wagon with his face swollen and his head wrapped in bandages.
The second time, several months later, he was walking with difficulty beside the freight station.
He seemed confused.
He answered to the name Will Hart.
But when Lydia mentioned the Hale family, he became visibly distressed.
According to her account, he had asked whether Gideon was still searching.
Lydia told him she believed the search had ended.
The young man grew agitated.
He insisted he had a brother.
But he couldn't remember enough details to explain where his family lived.
Before Lydia could ask more, Martin Voss arrived and ordered her to leave.
Several days later, Voss warned her never to question the identity of employees under Rusk's protection.
Lydia became suspicious.
She wrote a letter to the sheriff.
No answer came.
She attempted to contact Gideon.
But the message was returned with a note claiming he had refused to receive it.
Gideon stared at that sentence.
He had refused no such letter.
The second page described Lydia's growing fear.
Rusk's company controlled several important freight contracts, and she depended upon those routes for flour and other supplies.
After she questioned the situation at Crow's Landing, her deliveries became unreliable.
An expensive shipment disappeared.
Then a credit arrangement was suddenly canceled.
Lydia understood the warning.
She was a widow running a small business in a town where Rusk's influence reached far beyond his own ranch.
She continued recording what she observed.
But she stopped asking questions openly.
The third page was shorter.
Written several years later.
It explained that the young man known as Will Hart had eventually disappeared from Crow's Landing after being transferred north with a timber crew.
Lydia hadn't seen him since.
She kept the ledger because it established that people were being supplied through a station the company claimed was closed.
She also preserved copies of invoices that appeared inconsistent with the official freight records.
Then came the final paragraph.
If Gideon Hale ever discovers that his brother may have survived, please give him these records. I was afraid when I should have been brave. I cannot undo that, but perhaps I can leave the truth where someone better than I am can find it.
Gideon lowered the paper.
For a long time, he didn't move.
Elena sat beside him, her hands folded in her lap.
Finally, Gideon whispered, “She knew.”