The Register

Cimarron's deed registry for 1872 is missing forty pages. The surrounding entries reference a land transfer that would, if valid, overturn the title of 180,000 acres of current federal land including three active military installations. Ada finds the county clerk who located the pages in a private estate sale in 1988, read them, and quietly returned them to the seller. She explains what was in them and why returning them was the only safe choice available to her.