PART 2 — THE NIGHT THE FENCE CAME DOWN

Caleb didn’t lower the rifle.

He stood on the porch and watched Eli ride into the yard. The missing cattle were still gone. The cut wire still hung loose in the lower pasture. Marcus held the railroad papers like they were already signed.

“Where were you?” Caleb asked.

Eli swung down. His boots were wet from the river.

“Riding.”

“Toward the Hale place?”

Eli met his brother’s eyes.

“I went to the crossing. That’s all.”

Marcus stepped forward.

“Someone drove twenty head across the river last night. The tracks don’t lie. And Anna Hale’s father has been waiting for an excuse to take our water.”

“It wasn’t Anna,” Eli said.

Caleb’s voice stayed low.

“Then who?”

Eli didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t make everything worse. He looked at the house, at the river beyond the cottonwoods, at his two brothers who had stopped trusting the space between them.

“I’ll ride out and look for the cattle,” he said.

“You’ll ride with me,” Caleb answered. “Marcus stays here in case they come back.”

Marcus folded the papers and put them in his coat.

“If we don’t give the railroad an answer by Friday, the offer drops. I’m not losing that money because the two of you want to play cowboy.”

Caleb turned his head.

“Then go to town and tell them no. Or stay out of my way.”

The two older brothers stared at each other. Eli stood between them and felt the ranch shifting under his feet.

They found the cattle just before dark.

Most of them were bunched in a draw on the Hale side of the river, too tired to run. Three were missing. Caleb counted them twice, then sat his horse and looked toward the Hale house on the far hill.

“We take them back tonight,” he said.

“They’ll be waiting,” Eli answered.

“Then they’ll see us coming.”

Eli wanted to tell him about Anna. About the warning she had given him at the crossing. About the way her brother had watched them without speaking. The words stayed in his throat.

They pushed the cattle across the shallow ford at moonrise. The water was cold and fast. Halfway over, Eli saw riders on the Hale bank. Four of them. Anna’s father sat in the middle, straight-backed, a rifle across his saddle. Anna was not with them.

Caleb raised his hand. The cattle kept moving.

“You’re on my land,” Hale called across the water.

“These are my cattle,” Caleb called back. “Someone cut my fence.”

“Maybe your own brothers did it,” Hale said. “I hear you’re already fighting over who gets to sell.”

Marcus had stayed behind, but the words still landed. Caleb’s jaw тιԍнтened.

“We’re not selling.”

Hale smiled.

“Your middle brother was in my office this afternoon. He seemed to think differently.”

Eli felt the air leave his lungs.

Caleb turned his head just enough to look at him.

“You knew.”

“I didn’t know he went to Hale,” Eli said.

“But you knew he was talking.”

Before Eli could answer, one of Hale’s men shifted his rifle. The sound of the lever was small over the river. Caleb’s hand moved toward his own gun.

Anna’s voice cut through the dark from somewhere behind her father.

“Stop.”

She rode out from the trees, hair loose, no weapon. Her father turned in the saddle.

“Go home, Anna.”

“Not until you let them take their cattle.”

Hale looked at her for a long moment. Then he looked at Eli, standing in the river beside his brother.

“You brought this to my door,” he said to her. “Remember that.”

He nodded to his men. They lowered their rifles. The cattle finished crossing. Caleb didn’t thank anyone. He just kept his eyes on Hale until the last cow was on Reed ground.

On the ride back, neither brother spoke.

When they reached the house, Marcus was sitting on the porch with a glᴀss in his hand. He looked up when he heard the horses.

“You get them?”

Caleb swung down and walked past him without answering.

Eli stayed in the saddle.

Marcus looked at him.

“He knows I talked to Hale.”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t stop me.”

“I didn’t know you were going today.”

Marcus took a drink.

“Doesn’t matter now. Caleb won’t sell. Hale won’t back down. And you’re standing in the middle with a girl on the other side of the river.”

Eli finally dismounted.

“What do you want me to do?”

Marcus set the glᴀss down.

“Pick a side before Friday. Because after that, the railroad stops asking nicely. And so does everyone else.”

Inside the house, Caleb’s boots moved across the floor and stopped.

The three brothers were under the same roof again.

None of them slept.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 3…