But Naomi kept measuring.
Now the rope was pulling so hard that the fibers cut into her gloves.
She planted one muddy boot against a submerged ridge and leaned backward.
"Come on," she whispered.
The rope moved an inch.
Then another.
Behind her, the older rancher laughed.
"Looks like you've hooked yourself a mountain."
Naomi didn't answer.
Something beneath the pond gave a long, low groan.
Not the sound of a branch breaking.
Not the scrape of a rock.
It was metallic.
Deep.
Almost as though a huge piece of machinery had been forced to move after decades of remaining still.
The rope suddenly jerked forward.
Naomi gasped.
Her right foot slipped.
She dropped onto one knee, splashing muddy water across her overalls.
The three men stopped laughing.
Forty feet away, a dark circle formed on the pond's surface.
It widened.
Then the water began rotating.
Slowly at first.
Then faster.
The rancher in the cowboy hat straightened.
"Naomi?"
She tightened her grip.
Something beneath the surface shifted again.
The rope pulled sideways.
And a massive black shape began rising through the water.
At first, it resembled a curved triangle, almost like the fin of an enormous animal.
Then sunlight struck the wet surface.
A line of black metal glistened beneath the muddy water.
The shape lifted another few inches.
Water poured away from its curved sides.
The pond began bubbling violently.
One of the ranchers stumbled backward.
"What in God's name is that?"
Naomi stared.
She'd expected an old piece of farm equipment.
Perhaps a collapsed section of fencing.
Maybe a rusted pump or a forgotten culvert cover.
But this thing was far too large.
And it was moving in a way that suggested something beneath it was still working.
Then the rope suddenly went slack.
The black shape dropped several inches.
A deep rumbling sound traveled through the pond.
The water near the opposite bank sank into a circular depression before rising again.
Naomi felt the mud shifting beneath her boots.
She looked toward the ranchers.
Their expressions had changed completely.
"Get away from the edge!" she shouted.
Then the ground beneath the oldest rancher's feet cracked.
And for the first time in thirty years, someone on the Vance farm understood why Naomi's grandmother had forbidden children from going near that pond.