Evelyn looked toward Caleb.
Then back at Whitcomb.
“Can we prove what happened?”
The attorney's expression changed.
He opened the book.
Studied the settlement receipt.
Then examined the mortgage documents.
For nearly an hour, he worked silently.
Finally, he looked up.
“This is serious.”
Evelyn swallowed.
“Serious enough to get my ranch back?”
Whitcomb considered his answer carefully.
“These documents raise substantial questions about the validity of the claimed foreclosure. But we'll need certified records, witness testimony, and a full examination of the proceedings.”
She nodded.
“What should we do?”
He looked toward Caleb.
“First, you must preserve the originals and make reliable copies.”
Then toward Evelyn.
“Second, we must determine exactly what was filed at the county office and whether the legal steps were properly completed.”
He paused.
“And third, we need to find the man who carried that last payment from your father to Victor Harrow.”
Evelyn's heart began pounding.
“The wagon driver.”
Whitcomb nodded.
“Precisely.”
She remembered the anonymous note.
Ask who took the last wagon to Granite Falls in October 1883.
For a moment, she stared.
Then whispered, “I think someone has already tried to tell me.”
The wagon driver was a man named Samuel Pike.
He had worked for Henry Hart for fourteen years before leaving Willow Creek shortly after Victor took control.
According to the old ranch records, Pike transported six thousand eight hundred dollars in a locked strongbox from Willow Creek to Harrow's office in Granite Falls.
The payment included proceeds from a cattle sale and money Henry had withdrawn from his savings.
Pike signed the delivery register.
But he disappeared from the ranch's records afterward.
Whitcomb remembered him.
“Tall fellow. Red beard. Lost part of one finger in a wagon accident.”
Caleb nodded.
“I remember.”
Evelyn looked toward him.
“Where is he now?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Last I heard, he was living near Laramie.”
Whitcomb opened an address book.
For a moment, he searched.
Then he found a note.
“Pike wrote to me two years ago.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“Why?”
The attorney looked toward her.
His expression became troubled.
“He asked whether the Hart estate had ever challenged the foreclosure.”
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Then he continued.
“I told him I had no authority to act on the estate's behalf.”