a good listener and a perfect gentleman. She wanted the chance to know the man better. But preparing for Will’s trial had to come first. For the next few weeks, nothing else could be allowed to matter.
She could only hope Drew would have the patience to wait.
* * *
By ten the next morning, the weather had warmed enough to feel comfortable. Wearing hats and jackets and packing a lunch, a flashlight, and a small shovel, Lauren and Erin mounted up and took the trail that wound through the foothills into the deep canyons. The turquoise sky was winter-bright, dazzling above the time-sculpted towers of the escarpment. A quail, perched atop a stunted cedar, scolded them as they rode past. The earth smelled rich and clean.
They rode side by side, laughing and chatting. Lauren was glad she’d decided to take the girl exploring today. After Will’s night in jail, Erin had become more and more worried about her father. A day of treasure hunting in the canyon would provide a welcome diversion.
Lauren, too, had felt the need to explore the sliver of land that had caused so much contention between the Prescotts and the Tylers. She’d been there with Sky when they’d freed up the spring and taken out the barbed-wire fence. But he’d been in a hurry that day so they hadn’t stayed long. Today she wasn’t expecting to find Spanish treasure; but before selling the land back to the Rimrock, she wanted to at least take a closer look. With winter coming, this brief warm spell might be her last chance.
By the time they reached the petroglyph canyon, they were both hungry. They tethered the horses near the canyon mouth, where the animals could graze and drink from the spring. Then they spread a cloth on the sand at the foot of the decorated cliff and feasted on Bernice’s homemade bacon sandwiches, topped off with oatmeal cookies and canned root beer.
“Jasper says we won’t find any treasure because it’s just a story,” Erin said. “But what if it’s really there? Do you think it might be?”
“My grandfather never found it,” Lauren said. “But what do you think?”
Erin nibbled her oatmeal cookie. “Sky always tells me the best way to handle a horse is to think like the horse. Maybe if we want to find the Spanish gold, we should think like the Spaniards. You know, pretend we’re trapped in the canyon and the Comanches are closing in, and we have to hide our treasure fast.”
“That’s a very clever idea,” Lauren said. “What do you say we clean up our picnic and try it? You’re in charge.”
They packed the remains of their lunch, put on work gloves, and gathered up the tools they’d brought. Erin led the way up the box canyon’s narrow, steep entrance to the small clearing on higher, more level ground.
Putting down their tools, they surveyed the spot. On the left, a wall of broken rock rose fifty feet above their heads. Fallen boulders and scree lay thick along its base. Willows, on their right, overhung the spring that trickled down into the lower canyon; behind the spring a high bank of crumbling earth sloped upward, then crested and dipped toward pastureland now owned by the syndicate that had bought out the Prescott Ranch.
The ground under their feet was hard-packed sand and gravel, dotted with tussocks of weedy grass. Almost thirty years had passed since Ferg Prescott had dug for buried treasure here and left empty-handed. The canyon looked as if it hadn’t been touched since.
Glancing around her, Lauren experienced a strange unease. She’d never known herself to have psychic gifts, but instinct whispered that something dark had happened here—something evil, best left alone.
Erin, however, was all grins and excitement. Asking her to leave, based on a whim of imagination, would be cruel, Lauren decided. For now, she would play along. But she’d keep an eye out for the first sign of trouble.
Erin’s gaze traveled up the crumbling cliff. “This is cool!” she exclaimed. “If there’s treasure here, maybe the two of us together will be smart enough to find it! Now let’s think. We’re Spaniards, we’ve got a chest full of treasure, and the Comanches are coming after us. What do we do?”
“We need to get away.” Lauren joined in the game. “But gold is heavy and hard to carry. We’ll have a better chance of escape if we hide it now and come back for it later.”
“Right.” Erin glanced around. “So what do we do