Reno looked away from Eve’s flushed cheeks and pale lips, feeling something close to shame for pushing her so hard. Then he cursed himself for feeling anything at all for the saloon girl who had done her best to get him killed while she stole everything in sight and ran to safety.

«What was the truth about the mines?» Reno asked roughly.

«All of them weren’t listed for the tax collectors. The silver mines, yes, and the turquoise mine and even two of the gold mines. But not the third one. That one he kept to himself.»

«Go on.»

Though Reno wasn’t looking at Eve any longer, she thought he sounded truly interested for the first time. She drew a discreet, relieved breath and kept talking.

«Only Leon’s eldest son knew about the secret gold mine, and then that son’s eldest son, and so on until the journal came into Don Lyon’s hands at the turn of the century,» Eve said. «By then, Spain was long gone from the West, the Leon name had become Lyon, and they spoke English rather than Spanish.»

Reno turned back to look at Eve, drawn by the shifting emotions in her voice.

«If there’s a gold mine in the family,» he asked, «why was Don Lyon making his living cheating at cards?»

«About a hundred years ago, they lost the mines,» Eve said simply.

«A hundred years. Was that when the Jesuits were thrown out?»

Eve nodded.

«The family was closely tied to the Jesuits,» she continued. «They had enough advance warning to bury the gold that had been smelted but not shipped. They covered over all signs of the mine and fled east across the mountains. They didn’t stop running until they came to the English colonies.»

«Didn’t any Leon ever try to find the gold they had left behind?» Reno asked.

«Don’s great-grandfather did, and his grandfather, and then his father. They never came back.» Eve shrugged. «Don always wanted the gold mine, but he didn’t want to die for it.»