Jasper sat near fire.
At sunset Caleb arrived.
His horse limped.
Blood? Avoid graphic; perhaps Caleb had bruised ribs and torn sleeve. He was exhausted, left shoulder muddy, hat gone.
Henrietta ran before thinking.
Stopped herself halfway.
Caleb saw.
Something passed in his expression.
“You’re alive.”
“Disappointing?”
“Deeply.”
He smiled tiredly.
Then stumbled.
Henrietta caught his arm.
He was heavy.
“Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“I have heard that lie before.”
She lowered him beside wagon.
Bruised ribs.
A cut at temple.
Nothing catastrophic.
He let her clean.
Unlike Jonah story? Fine.
Caleb winced.
“You enjoy this.”
“Immensely.”
Jasper watched from fire.
Caleb asked:
“How many recovered?”
“Most.”
“Saul estimates twenty-two missing.”
Caleb’s face tightened.
“Could be farther.”
Jasper said:
“Or could be gone.”
Henrietta looked at him.
Something about tone.
Caleb heard too.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
Caleb stood despite pain.
“Higgins.”
Jasper looked away.
The next morning Levi found fresh tracks heading east.
Not cattle wandering.
Driven.
Twenty head.
Someone had peeled them from scattered herd during storm.
Jasper’s letter returned like a gunshot in Caleb’s mind.
Any cattle lost entered at twenty-five per head.
Private count later.
Caleb confronted.
Jasper denied.
But one cowboy, Mason Reed, admitted he had seen Jasper riding east during storm with two unknown men.
Jasper ran before noon.
Not far.
His horse tired.
Saul and Caleb brought him back.
No beating.
No rope.
Just hands tied.
Henrietta saw fury in Caleb.
“Don’t.”
He looked.
“He stole twenty cattle.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Proof.”
Caleb stared.
She held his own lesson from invoices back to him.
Numbers.
Evidence.
He breathed.
“You’re right.”
They recovered seventeen head that afternoon.
Three had vanished with the two accomplices.
Enough proof Jasper had been part of plan.
At Cimarron trading post, Caleb turned Jasper over to local marshal with copies of letters and statements from crew.
Jasper shouted as they led him away:
“Jenkins ordered it!”
Caleb stopped.
Jasper laughed.
“You think he’ll thank you?”
“He’ll bury every one of you.”
“You especially, Lawson.”
“And her.”
He pointed at Henrietta.
“He hired her because nobody would believe fat camp cook over ranch owner.”
The insult landed.
Henrietta’s face did not move.
Caleb did.
He stepped toward Jasper.
Henrietta touched his arm.
“Don’t.”
“He—”
“I heard.”
Caleb looked at her.
She whispered:
“He wants you angry enough to make him victim.”
Caleb exhaled.