Clara studied him.
"You're lying."
The old man looked up sharply.
She took a step forward.
"You knew enough to hide in our walls. You knew enough to watch us for weeks. You knew enough to break into our pantry."
Edgar said nothing.
"So don't tell us you were an innocent fool who believed everything he was told."
Samuel looked at her.
Clara's cheeks had flushed with anger.
She continued.
"My father spent his whole life making excuses for things he refused to explain. And now you're doing the same."
The old man lowered his gaze.
Clara took another step.
"What happened to that man?"
Edgar whispered, "I don't know."
Samuel clenched his jaw.
"Then tell us what you do know."
The old man looked toward the chest.
"Your father kept the original survey."
Samuel frowned.
"The survey of the mine?"
Edgar nodded.
"It proves the Northern Claim never belonged to us."
"Where is it?"
"I thought it was in that chest."
Samuel glanced at the papers.
"And if it is?"
Edgar looked at him.
"Then the land could be taken away."
Clara felt her stomach tighten.
"What land?"
The old man raised his eyes.
"All of it."
Samuel said nothing.
Edgar continued.
"The cabin. The fields. The spring. The orchard. Everything."
Clara slowly looked around the chamber.
Their home.
The place where she had first felt safe.
The place where Samuel had promised to grow old beside her.
All of it might rest upon forged documents and a crime committed before either of them was born.
Samuel remained motionless.
Then he asked the question that mattered most.
"Why did you put the meat in our pantry?"
Edgar looked away.
Samuel repeated himself.
The old man finally sighed.
"I wanted you to find the passage."
Clara stared.
"You wanted us to find it?"
"Yes."
"By frightening us?"
"I couldn't simply knock on the door."
Samuel's eyes narrowed.
"Why not?"
Edgar looked toward the tunnel.
"Because someone else has been watching this house."
The old man explained that he had come to the property several weeks earlier after receiving an anonymous letter.
The message contained only a few words.
The Northern Claim is not finished. The truth is under the Thorne house.
At first, he dismissed it.
Then a second letter arrived.
This one contained a copy of a mining receipt signed by Nathaniel Bennett.
The receipt had been missing for twenty-seven years.
Edgar began searching.
He returned to the old tunnels.
He discovered that someone had repaired the hidden entrance beneath the woodshed.
And he found evidence that another person had recently entered the sealed chamber.
Samuel glanced at the cot.
"The blankets?"
Edgar nodded.
"Not mine."
"The food?"
"Not mine."
Clara looked toward the notebook.
"And the notes about me?"
The old man's face tightened.