In 1908 a letter came to him at the Cliff, New Mexico, post office. It was worn smooth as an old glove, for it had followed Jeff from Cliff, to Alamogordo, to Texas, back to Cliff, always missing him by a couple of weeks or a month. Its arrival seemed a sign that persistence paid off.

The letter was from his brother-in-law, Will, responding to Jeff's letter about Mattie's death. Will was running cattle now, too, in the Horseshoe Mountains of Arizona. By his accounts, he was doing all right. From what Jeff knew of Will's optimism and struggles with the truth, he figured that really meant Will was scraping by, just like him.

Jeff wrote back and in two weeks got a letter by return. In Arizona Will was giving up on the Horseshoe Mountains, but he had found grazing land in Stove Gulch in the eastern end of Aravaipa Canyon. It could support quite a few cattle, and he suggested that Jeff might want to throw in with him and run the cattle together.

There was only a line shack in Aravaipa Canyon. But there was water and grass. The cattle were run down after being driven for seventeen days from the Horseshoes to Stove Gulch. There was enough room in the shack for only two. Will was one of two, and the Powers consulted on who should be the other. Jeff, Charlie, and John all had contacts in Cliff, where they could pick up work. That left sixteen-year-old Tom Power as the best candidate to go to Arizona while the rest of the family stayed in New Mexico. Tom and Will lived in the line shack, and Will became the rancher by default.

Tom rode to the Aravaipa store and post office whenever he got the chance. Usually it was to pick up some supplies or tobacco for Will. He often went, hoping for a letter from the family, though he couldn't imagine who in the family would actually write him one. Granny Jane couldn't write, and neither Jeff nor John was much inclined that way, though both had the skill. He guessed his best chance was Charlie or Ola May, who was now fifteen and the most educated of the family. She did write once every four or five weeks, and it was worth it to Tom to ride in a couple of times a week just in case she got off schedule. Besides, he liked looking at the things in the store that he could not buy.