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“Basically,” said Thayne, “we just said whatever we thought would go over the worst. And you’ve got to admit, it’s just as well no one showed one speck of interest in us. We were going on a treasure hunt.”

Tilda shook her head. “And after you ran off from me, you hopped into a baggage car and rode the rails all the way to San Francisco.”

“Yep, and we got mighty hungry after a while. But we made it. When we arrived, we went around looking for the kids who’d ended up out on the streets, abandoned for one reason or another, thinking they could help us find food.

We found the Child of God Mission, and there was Aunt Michelle hunting up youngsters for her school—which was real close to where we wanted to go. ”

“So you lied about being orphans.” Michelle’s eyes flashed. “Lied to adoptive parents in town after town. Lied to Miss Tilda, lied to Sister Agatha at the mission, then lied to me when I asked if you wanted to come to the ranch in search of an education.”

Lock looked at Thayne. “That about covers it.”

“Not all of it,” Thayne said. “We could’ve just gone home to Pa.”

“Is your father still alive?” Tilda asked. “I thought your parents were dead and you had no other family. Then when I got here, I thought you only had Brody.”

“Ma died before we left,” Lock explained. “Pa was ailing and cranky. We were as good as orphans.”

Michelle had a look in her eyes that made most everyone in her vicinity nervous.

Thayne looked a little scared, while Lock didn’t show even a speck of worry.

Josh had had his hands full with these two since they’d come here. Once Brody arrived, they’d still been a peck of trouble, but they were Brody’s trouble. Now Brody was gone for who could say how long, and they were back to being unrepentant scamps.

“Boys, I had Gretel clean out the room where Ellie slept.” Annie was the best of them when it came to taking charge of the children.

“You can sleep there. It’s at the top of the stairs, end of the hall, on the left.

I went to your rooms and gathered your nightshirts and a change of clothes for tomorrow.

We all best get some rest. It’s been a long day that followed a long weekend exploring in the wilderness.

Tomorrow things get back to normal. You’ve got school. ”

“No, we can’t go to school. We have to go and follow the map.”

Josh shook his head. “Haven’t you figured out yet that it’s dangerous in the wilderness?”

“But we’re so close, and with that Loyal Kelton varmint arrested, it’ll be safe now.”

“You didn’t know Kelton was a danger. Who else might cause trouble?”

“Brody told us we could search for the treasure,” Lock said, defiance in his tone.

“Well, when he comes back, you can take that up with him.”

“We don’t need Brody. I know that map better’n anyone, and I’m smart enough to make sense of it all on my own.”

“But,” Josh snapped, “you need Auntie Michelle here to translate the Spanish. You need Miss Tilda here to research the history of the journal, and you need me to figure out anything in those pages of your grandpa’s that has to do with sailing.

And I’ve been away from work for days now, Zane longer than that.

I can’t go treasure hunting with you. Zane can’t go.

Brody’s not here. You’re just going to have to wait. ”

“We don’t need to bother anyone,” Lock said as he piled more mashed potatoes onto his plate. He then picked up the bowl of stew and scooped some of it over his potatoes. He grabbed two more biscuits. “Now that we have the map, we can go on our own.”

Tilda gasped. “You wouldn’t, would you? The wilderness is no place for two boys alone.”

“I’m sixteen years old,” Thayne said. “Almost seventeen. I’m the oldest boy in school.

Two of them have left since I got here to find jobs, and more are working here as cowhands.

Only a few my age are staying with school much longer, and all three want to be teachers.

I’m not a boy. I’m a grown man. And Brody was working when he was Lock’s age and helping support our family. So Lock’s a man, too.”

Tilda looked at Michelle, then at Josh. “Do something. They can’t ride off alone.”

Zane, from the end of the table, said, “They can’t ride off, and they know it. They don’t own horses. And we hang horse thieves out here in the West.”

Thayne and Lock both whipped their heads around to stare at Zane.

Annie might not be the best at managing children, Josh decided. As for Zane, he had a knack for it.

Lock said, “We’d promise to bring the horses back—”

“That’s right. We’d never steal a horse, uh, Uncle Zane.” Sounding solemn and mature, Thayne talked over his brother.

“How far of a ride did you take last weekend?”

“It took us a full day to find Grandpa’s cave.”

“And how long if you walked it?” Zane sounded like a lawyer questioning a hostile witness.

Thayne lifted his chin. “It would be several days, assuming we don’t get lost. Josh led the way, mostly. I think we could find it, but it’d be three days hiking to reach the cave.”

“Three days plus camping out at night. You’ll need food.

And you said you had a lot more of the map to follow after your grandpa’s cave, and it was slow figuring it out.

So that’s several more days to reach the end of your map, with no idea where to go beyond that because you only have half of the map.

The other half that you hope your brother—who got shot on your last treasure hunt—intends to search for, once he can. ”

“Thayne,” Josh interjected, “you say you’re a man, but men don’t lie . Men don’t even consider stealing a horse.”

“We aren’t going to steal—”

“Men are honorable .” Josh cut him off. “They face up to trouble. They help when the family needs help. They don’t smirk and boast”—Josh’s eyes went to Lock—“about how they fooled honest folks who were taking them across the country, paying for every bit of it, hoping to find them a home. That’s stealing money from orphans who’d’ve loved to find a home.

You want to claim you’re a man, then be a man .

” He jabbed his finger at Lock, then at Thayne.

“Show some maturity. And smart isn’t the same as wise.

You’re both smart enough, but neither one of you shows one speck of wisdom with your headlong chase for that treasure—willing to lie, steal, and cheat to get it.

You want us to treat you like men, then start acting like men. Right now.”

Thayne’s chin dropped almost to his chest. “You’re right.”

“No!” Lock as good as howled. “We’re so close. We have to—”

“Stop it.” Thayne didn’t slug his brother this time. Somehow that made this more serious. “We’ll wait for Brody.”

The brothers’ eyes met. Lock the wild adventurer, the explorer. The big believer in the treasure. Thayne, more mature. Plenty of rambunctious nonsense in the kid, but he was growing up. In fact, Josh thought the kid was growing up right in front of his eyes.

Lock finally shrugged one shoulder, then turned away from Thayne and looked around the table.

“You’re our family now. We never had much of a family before.

Ma was always working. Brody was always working too, and then for years he was gone.

It’s not easy to listen to anyone but myself.

Thanks for caring enough to talk to us.”

He gave Zane an especially respectful look, then slid his eyes to Josh.

“We only got as far as we did because of you and Aunt Ellie ... no, wait, our sister Ellie. We ran off on our own and never made much headway, not until we had your help. Thayne is right. We’ll wait for Brody.

” Lock straightened. Then his eyes flashed. “Unless one of you wants to go now?”

Lock had lasted almost half a minute being reasonable and mature. Now his eyes lit up with hope and just a hint of a wild man.

Josh figured half a minute was the best they were going to get.

“Give us time to look over the journal and study the map.” Josh started talking to head off this maverick calf.

“Tomorrow, you go back to school. The rest of us all have work to do. Maybe Brody will be back fast with that other map, but he didn’t look like he was up to jumping on a train.

I’m hoping he rests for a few days before they go.

If he takes long enough to get back that we figure out the journal, and we think we know where to go, maybe we can spend another weekend treasure hunting. ”

“Let’s head up to bed now.” Annie, always the mother. “We all need sleep.”

Michelle asked again for the name and address of Tilda’s boss back in New York City.

“Mrs. Worthington. We don’t need to go out to the telegraph office tonight, though.”

“The telegraph is here in the ranch house. I can send a wire in a couple of minutes and get that handled.”

“Thank you, Michelle. Can I look at the journal tonight?” Tilda extended a hand toward Michelle, who still held it.

Michelle’s hand tightened on it, and she smiled. “I find myself wanting to keep it, but I’ll get my turn. You must be tired, too.”

“I am. I just want to hang on to it. It might keep the boys from running off.”

Michelle chuckled, and Zane and Josh joined her.

Annie said to Tilda, “There’s a key in the door to your room. Use it.”