"Did you find treasure?" Mr. Berg asked as he walked by the house, a common refrain on his lips these days. There was a distinctive eagerness in the quiver of his mustache.

Mercy, who was hunting dandelions in the yard for her mother, so Ruth could fix a salad with them, looked up and considered. They'd found lots of treasure boxes so far. Where had he been? She nodded shyly her answer. Then she hurried into the house with her gathered weeds.

Kid was out of the house. Ruth had sent him fishing. With a solid week of him watching the kids almost entirely on his own while she read, she'd told him he deserved a break. And it was a break for her to have a full day to work on the chores and play with the children. She was fidgeting every time she sat down anymore. She just wasn't wired to sit still for very long.

Ruth was in the middle of rinsing off the dandelions when there was a knock at the door. She dried her hands off and answered it to find Mr. Berg and Ms. De La Fontaine.

"What a pleasant surprise," Ruth said. Though she thought it strange they were now spending time together, she didn't say so. Instead, she smiled and invited them in, a move she quickly regretted.

"Okay. Where is it?" Mr. Berg demanded.

"Where's what?"

"The treasure. I know you have it. A little birdie told me." He looked right at Mercy as he said it. He pulled out a gun to show he wasn't playing around.

"You misunderstood. I haven't figured the last clue out yet," she said, keeping a calm she didn't feel as she quickly took note of where each of the children were while praying in her mind.

He followed her darting eyes and asked, "Where's your husband?"

"He'll be back any minute," she lied.

"Better make this quick then. Where's the treasure?"

"I told you. We haven't found it." Her heart beat erratically. What if he didn't believe them? Or worse, what if he did? What was he going to do to them?

"You lie. He better not be off selling it. Although if he comes back with cash, that'll make my job easier."

"Should've known better than to trust outsiders," said Ms. De La Fountaine accusingly.

Ruth experienced a flicker of hope. Maybe she could appeal to her feminine sympathy. She looked to Ms. De La Fountaine and begged, "Please, the kids are frightened. Do what you want with me, but let them go. They've nothing to do with this."

"So they can run and tell your husband or someone else? How stupid do you think we are?" she returned in frigid tones and an even colder look.

During the course of the conversation, Mercy had inched her way towards the bedrooms, stepping lightly. Ruth knew exactly what she was going to get. That worried her, but then again it might be their only chance.

There had to be a distraction, so they didn't have the opportunity to realize Mercy was missing. They were already moving things around in the search for the treasure. If they caught Mercy before she got it, it didn't bear thinking about.

"I'm having chest pains," Ruth complained, doubling over and clutching at her chest. Taking care to look in pain and produce labored breathing.

"She's too young to be having heart pains," Ms. De La Fountaine scoffed.

"You sure about that? We don't want to kill anyone," Mr. Berg argued back.

"You might not, but I'll kill anyone who gets in my way of what's owed me," she said.

Mr. Berg seemed to be reconsidering teaming up with this woman.

Still feigning heart trouble, Ruth asked. "Why would you do this when you already get a share of the profits, the both of you."

"There's more to go around between just 2 people than a whole town," Ms. De La Fountaine answered. "Really. Does it have to be spelled out for you?"

click

All heads turned toward Mercy, who was now holding the gun that Kid had won in a shooting contest. He'd done it for the prize money to support his family, but he'd kept the pistol to one day give to Mercy when she was old enough to handle one without supervision. Seemed that day had come sooner than any of them had thought.

"She's just a little girl with a gun, you idiot," Ms. De La Fountaine said, breaking the silence at last. "Get it from her."

"She's worse than that. She's Kid Cole's daughter." He was afraid of stepping closer or pointing a gun towards her or any of her family. Afraid it would result in a swift and accurate shot from this little auburn-haired girl.

"So?" Ms. De La Fountaine replied, not seeing the problem.

"So he's the fastest draw in the west. You don't think he's taught her to use a gun? Look at the way she's holding it. She knows how to use it."

Except she'd never shot a person before. Her daughter's heart was too soft even to hunt. She'd cried once when she'd stepped on and killed a caterpillar. If she had to end up shooting a human being to protect her family, only the Lord knew what it'd do to her. She prayed to God for another way.

"Then shoot her," Ms. De La Fountaine said as if there could be no other conclusion.

Ruth cried out in terror and a plea to God before a gun went off. Ruth glanced about the room wildly, afraid of where the bullet might have gone and not knowing whose gun had been fired.

Then Kid came running out of the shadows, having snuck in through a bedroom window. Her fears eased immediately. Kid had only fired a warning shot, but it served its purpose well. The confusion had allowed him to catch Mr. Berg off guard and wrestle him and his gun to the ground.

Ms. De La Fountaine tried to make a run for it, but being unarmed, Ruth wasn't a bit frightened of the woman and tackled her to the ground. Roughhousing with her brothers growing up had finally paid off. Kid tied up Mr. Berg first and then came to relieve her of her prisoner.

Mercy had lowered the gun she held and was crying tears of relief. Ruth had wet eyes herself as she went over to hug her and comfort the boys as well. Gideon was crying because of the gunshot. Isaiah looked more mad at the intruders than anything, a feeling she could relate to. "Thank God you cut your fishing trip short, but why did you?" she asked Kid.

"I saw them walking together and figured they were coming to harass you about not looking for the answer to the clue today. I had no idea they'd stoop to this, but I'm awful glad I came to check."

The holding cell was put to good use. The same holding cell they'd found the third clue in. Mr. Berg insisted it was all Ms. De La Fountaine's idea. Ms. De La Fountaine said nothing just stared them down defiantly, still believing herself the rightful heir as a cousin and caregiver to Ms. St. Martin.

The town was in an uproar over it once the news got out. Mostly they were indignant the two'd had plans on leaving town with the treasure. Kid had Mercy bring his guitar and sat himself in front of the locked door to wile away time until he could escort them to a judge and a full-time facility.

It was all so terribly sad and tragic, Ruth thought. The things people would do over treasure: lie, steal, kill. A verse came to her mind just then. "Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith."