Certain property agreements also came under scrutiny because they had been negotiated while ranchers were under financial pressure created by disputed debts and missing livestock revenue.
The inquiry expanded beyond Cedar Hollow.
A territorial attorney reviewed the documents.
Postal authorities examined allegations that letters had been intercepted or withheld.
And witnesses from the northern timber camps provided accounts of Matthew's years under the name Will Hart.
Not every allegation could be proved.
Some records had been lost.
Others were incomplete.
Several witnesses had died.
But enough evidence survived to establish a pattern of misconduct that Rusk could no longer dismiss as the imaginings of a grieving rancher.
Martin Voss eventually agreed to cooperate with investigators.
He had spent years managing Rusk's records and knew which accounts had been altered.
His testimony became especially significant when several letters Matthew had written were recovered from a locked cabinet in the freight office.
Gideon's name appeared on the envelopes.
So did the northern postmarks.
Some were dated years before Matthew finally returned to Cedar Hollow.
When Gideon saw the letters, he couldn't speak.
He carried them home.
Sat beside the fireplace.
And opened them one at a time.
The first contained only fragments.
Matthew was still recovering from his injury and trying to remember his family.
He wrote that he believed he had a brother named Gideon.
He remembered a ranch near Cedar Hollow.
And he wanted to know whether anyone there recognized him.
The second letter was clearer.
Matthew described a horse called Copper.
A dog their father once owned.
And the apple pie their mother made during autumn.
By the third letter, he had remembered enough to ask directly whether Gideon Hale still lived on the old ranch.
Gideon read the words with tears streaming down his face.
Elena sat beside him.
She didn't interrupt.
When he finished the final letter, he held the pages against his chest.
“He tried.”
His voice broke.
“He kept trying.”
Elena placed one hand over his.
“Yes.”
Gideon looked toward the fire.
For ten years, he'd believed he was the only brother trying to keep the family alive.
Now he understood that Matthew had been searching too.
They had been separated not simply by mountains or a storm.
But by people who found it profitable to keep them apart.
The discovery deepened Gideon's anger.
Yet it also relieved some of the guilt he'd carried.
He had not abandoned Matthew.