He lowered himself back onto his chair, then smiled at her as she set two full mugs of steaming coffee on the table. He held his mug in both hands as she added a tub of butter to the table, then handed him his silverware before finally sitting beside him.
Jake sipped his coffee, set the mug down and began to slice his steak as he asked, “Sara, do you think that Dave was lying about everything in his letter?”
Sara was surprised that Jake had managed to set aside his hero-worship of the foreman, so she asked, “Why do you suddenly think it’s possible?”
Jake chewed his steak and swallowed before replying, “I’ve been fishing out all of my old memories about Dave from the time he arrived on the Elk. Only then did I realize that I knew nothing about his past, and I’m sure that none of the other men do either. My father may have known his history, but we weren’t talking very much by then.”
“So, that letter could be a complete fabrication?”
“I suppose so. But why would he use such a shameful lie to explain why he had to leave? He could have invented a much more admirable reason. You know, like he had to help his dying mother or something.”
“Maybe he knew that you’d be more likely to believe the letter if he made it sound despicable.”
Jake shoved some spiced beans and onions into his mouth and began chewing the food and Sara’s suggestion.
She was taking a bite of her steak when he said, “I don’t want to ride all the way to Meagher County just to find out if he was telling the truth, Sara. If the ranch is there, it’s more than twice as far away as it is to Helena. I guess it doesn’t matter, but it will still bother me.”
Sara held up a finger as she chewed her steak then swallowed before saying, “You can just go into town and ask Mister Gallagher if Mister Forrest had a post office box.”
Jake’s forkful of steak froze just an inch before his open mouth as he gaped at Sara.
He finally said, “I hadn’t even thought about that. I think that proves that you really are smarter than I am.”
“No, I’m not. I’m just unencumbered by emotions, at least as far as your foreman and parents are concerned.”
Jake rammed the steak into his mouth and watched Sara eat. He could have checked earlier today but now was wondering what he would do if he discovered that Dave didn’t have a post office box.
A few seconds and one big bite of steak later, Jake said, “I’ll go into town tomorrow and ask. I hope that Dave did have that post office box, because it was a lie, then I’ll have more problems to solve. Then there’s the smaller one about the missing rifle, too.”
“He took a rifle from the office, too? Why would he another need one?”
“My father had two long-range rifles. One was the Sharps that I took with me to Helena and the other was a British rifle. They’re both very powerful guns but they’re breech loaders and can only fire a single shot. They can be reloaded fairly quickly by an experienced shooter, but a Winchester can fire much faster. My ’76 has a more powerful round than the ’73 model that most men have, including Dave. If he needed more range and power, he could have taken the Winchester ’76 on the rack just below the Martini-Henry. I have no idea why he took the long-range rifle.”
Sara wasn’t concerned about the rifle and said, “I may not have known Mister Forrest at all, but there was something in the letter that seemed curious to me.”
Jake had a mouthful of beans, so he just tilted his head and raised his eyebrows to ask his non-verbal question.
“He wrote that he hadn’t seen her in eight years. When he left, she was a young woman who hadn’t even given birth to her first baby yet. Now she had three children and she was eight years older. You noticed the changes in Kay after only three years, so he surely wasn’t expecting to find the same Violet he left behind. He was willing to give up his well-paying position and ride more than a hundred and fifty miles just because he felt guilty?
“If the small ranch was doing so poorly, he could have just asked to borrow a few of your ranch hands, driven down there with your wagon and returned with her, the children and whatever cattle they had. It would have been a much better solution for everyone. He already had a house and I’m sure you would have been more than willing to let him use some men and the wagon.”
Jake nodded as he said, “I would have let him borrow whatever he needed. I would probably have given him a piece of the Elk for his new family when they returned.”
“I also wondered why he felt it was so critical that he couldn’t wait a few days. You told him that you were going to send him a telegram from Helena; didn’t you?”
“I did, but when I decided to stop my search, I only sent one to you because I’d be back on the Elk in three days and wasn’t worried about the ranch.”
“So, why the rush? After eight years, he could have waited at least another week.”
Jake nodded as he continued to eat his supper. Sara’s logical and intuitive questions were having their impact. Everything she was saying made sense, which also made the letter seem more fraudulent. He now expected that when he went to Fort Benton in the morning, Mister Gallagher would shake his head and tell him
