Rebellion in the Valley by Robyn Leatherman

when she had enough space in
between them and hollered out, “I still don’t think you rake manure
right!”
    Tobias waved a hand at her and rolled his
eyes.
    “That girl,“ he said out loud. He hadn’t even
realized he said it until Bruce chimed in.
    “Yeah. Some days I don’t know what I’m gonna
do with her. She’s growin’ up on me, Tobias, and there ain’t a
whole lot I can do about it.” His face turned toward the man
standing next to him and he opened his mouth to say something, but
stopped short when he couldn’t help but notice that Tobias was
still watching Hailee as she stooped under Epoenah’s pen
fencing.
    The look on her daddy’s face made it clear he
wasn’t so sure he was comfortable with the way Tobias was still
looking at his only daughter.
    P
    After dinner that very evening, Duffy stood
at his work bench, putting a match to the oil burning lantern he
kept hanging on an old hook and pulled the wick down some.
    “Best to keep the light down low right now,”
a guilty conscience cautioned as he tugged at the tack room door
again to make certain it was shut tight.
    His eyes followed the words scrawled out on
the paper and he bit at his bottom lip without even thinking about
what he was doing.
    ‘ An
opportunity like this one don’t come around but once in a man’s
life ,’ Duffy rationalized.
‘ If I play my cards right, the kid will be
done away with and I’ll be top dog again. ’
    Yanking a worn-out wallet from his back
dungarees pocket, he opened it and re-counted the number of
greenbacks he owned. If he decided to go ahead and buy those shares
in the Pocahontas Mine, it would show Bruce he was better than that
kid. He would prove to be the smarter one, the one with a mind for
business.
    Nodding to reassure himself that he was
making the right decision indeed, Duffy closed the wallet and slid
it back into place in his pocket.
    “Yep,” he mumbled. “I’ll
head on over to the Bank of Rosita first thing in the morning and
get that taken care of,” he nodded in satisfaction.
‘ Now to take care of that dang
kid .’
    Duffy’s arm reached high over his head,
fingers wiggling around the top shelf until they grasped a leather
pouch.
    A lump filled his throat and a trickle of
perspiration rolled down his forehead; he swallowed hard as his
fingers pulled at the thongs tied around the top.
    He slid the smaller blades back out of the
pouch, scowled at his own indecision.
    Should he or shouldn’t he?
     

Chapter 7
     
    C limbing up on his Palomino, Duffy rode off the ranch early
enough so nobody even realized he was gone; he’d planned it that
way. It wasn’t anybody’s business where he went or what he did,
anyhow.
    Just as the hill caused him and his horse to
disappear, a dirty grin eased its way across his mouth. Images of
the reaction he would get from Bruce when he realized Duffy had
purchased stocks in such a profitable business deal played in his
mind over and over again, each time the scene being just a bit
different from the one before; he would have to be quiet about
buying these shares in the mine or people would be worming their
ways out of the woodwork little by little to borrow money or try to
buddy-up to him. And Duffy would have none of that!
    The man on horseback pulled a worn-out pocket
watch from his vest.
    The Bank of Rosita would be opening its doors
within fifteen minutes; Duffy felt his back pocket for the fifth
time, just to make certain his wallet hadn’t fallen from his
dungarees somewhere on the trail into town.
    Soon as Duffy hit the farthest end of Tyndall
Street in Rosita, Colorado that Tuesday morning, he smelled the
bacon that gave him a tickle in both his nose and his belly;
obviously, someone in one of the seven homes located on the street
just behind the Bank of Rosita had already been up and taking care
of household business. An unintentional hand went straight to his
belt buckle, rubbing that empty spot caused as a direct result of
skipping