Rebellion in the Valley (7 page)

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 Richard’s breakfast. He winced just a tad without even
realizing it; soon as he purchased those shares in the mine, he
would have to stop in at one of the hotel saloons and order himself
a nice hot breakfast to celebrate his new-found riches. He’d been
hearing a few of the silver miners bragging on the food they
served, and he’d meant to stop in there for a while now,
anyhow.

As long as he wandered back to the Red Bone
before too much time passed and he eased his way up through the
back of the property, he could always make like he’d gotten up
early in order to get a few things done before the day got
started.

The morning sunshine warmed the hands holding
on to the reins of his horse and he snickered to himself…at least
he wouldn’t be lying. Not completely, anyhow.

Duffy swung his right leg over the rear end
of his Palomino and as his boot hit the planked walkway, his eyes
scanned down the length of Tyndall Street; the schoolteacher had
already rung the massive bell hanging outside the double doors and
most of the people walking around were only those who were tending
to their everyday chores.

With one hand, he attached the reins to the
wooden hitching post and paused to think of those fancy ones he’d
heard they used in the big cities back east. From stories related
by some of the local folk who’d been out that way, they were made
from solid cast iron and from what Duffy heard tell, they were even
fitted with thick gold rings for tying the reins onto. He wondered
how heavy they actually were and how far they planted those things
into the ground when the sound of a barking dog caught his
attention. The mutt apparently snagged an older lady’s basket of
food as she was exiting the hotel Duffy planned to eat at once
those shares were hot in his hands.

The bank smelled clean and tidy; his boots
clanked across the hard wooden floor. Tall windows positioned
across the front of the building allowed plenty of warmth to fill
the large room, adding to Duffy’s already perspiring forehead.

“Good morning, Sir,” Duffy offered to the man
behind the oversized solid oak banking desk. Thick iron bars across
the length of the desk formed a barrier between the bank employees
and the public; the man on the other side smiled a toothy reply to
Duffy.

“How may I be of assistance to you on this
fine day?”

Duffy could just feel himself growing richer
by the second!

“You can assist me by taking some of my
hard-earned cash here,” Duffy replied, not in the most educated
manner. “I’ll be taking five shares in that Pocahontas Mine this
morning. It’s a little surprise, if ya know what I mean,” he added
with a self-important sniff and a tugging on his cow-hide
jacket.

Mr. Walter Stuart, the proprietor of the Bank
of Rosita, just grinned.

“Certainly, Sir. That will be five shares in
the Pocahontas Mine, at ten dollars per share, which comes to a
total of fifty United States dollars, please.” He reached under the
cabinet, retrieving a few formal-looking documents. “If you would
please fill out these forms, sir–quite customary, I assure you.
They will assign each share to its rightful new owner and legally
document you as the purchaser. Each share is numbered, as you will
see at the top of each share form,” Mr. Stuart pointed to the many
places on the sheets of paper as he explained what each spot
represented in legal terms.

With each stroke of the ink pen, Howard J.
Duffman felt his life getting better - and richer. Behind those
bars, Mr. Stuart tried not to smirk at the grin spreading across
Duffy’s greedy face; he’d seen that same look on several faces
recently and knew what they would eventually amount to.

Signed and paid for in full, Howard J.
Duffman strolled out of the Bank of Rosita as the proud owner of
five shares in the Pocahontas Mine. Feeling rather invincible, he
decided a hearty plate of breakfast vittles was definitely in order
and instead of mounting his Palomino, he chose to walk the horse on
over to the hotel, where he re-tied it to yet another hitching
post. Whistling a cheerful tune, Duffy held the door for a couple
who were exiting just as he pulled the door open for himself.

Tipping his hat in a kind gesture, Duffy
nodded his head. “Morning,” he acknowledged.

Once a cup of steaming fresh coffee had found
its way into his system, he pulled the documents back out of the
envelope the bank man had folded them into.

‘
Just imagine! Owner of five shares in a silver
mine
.’ His mind began wandering and he
thought of at least ten different ways he would spend the profits
when he cashed them in one day. ‘
O
r,’ he rubbed his chin in thought,
‘
I just might even sit on them for a while
longer than I’d figured
.’ Who knew how far
those shares could take him?

Tipping his server a full two bits, Howard J.
Duffman found his way back outside, feeling like a brand-new man.
Reborn. Energized and ready to tackle just about anything that came
his way. Maybe even Tobias, that whippersnapper.

That reminded him. He really should be
heading on back to the ranch since his business had taken a spell
longer than he had planned.

Just as Howard J. Duffman, entrepreneur,
vacated Tyndall Street, Mr. Walter Stuart kept an eye on the man
who had just purchased the last of the shares offered from the
Pocahontas Mine.

P

Jabbing the tip of an old manure fork back
into the pile, Bruce nodded his head at the man speaking to him.
“Yeah, makes no never mind to me how we get it done, long as it
gets done.”

The morning, short-handed by three ranch
hands, moved a bit slower than usual.

“Normally I’d have no problem dropping all
the hay off in the fields by myself, but I sure could use a hand
today so the cattle gets fed before too much longer,” the ranch
hand pulled on the brim of his hat casually.

“Hey, tell ya what,” Bruce thought aloud.
“I’m almost done here. Give me maybe another thirty minutes, and
I’ll come on over and help you with that. Been a while since I
worked with you anyhow.”

The other man nodded in agreement. “That
should give me enough time to finish loading up. You know where to
find me, Boss.” He turned on a booted heel to return to the stack
of hay piled up behind the weathered old barn.

Bruce wiped his forehead. He felt a break
coming his way, but knew the work had to be done and opted for
getting this and at least one more chore completed before having
the entire crew come in and get out of the heat for a few
minutes.

The fork, under the weight of the load he
scooped up, caused Bruce to grimace.

“Kinda stinky, huh, Daddy?”

Shaking his head, Bruce tossed the pile into
the wheelbarrow and stabbed the fork down into the mess again.

“Well, I can handle the stink. What has me
stumped is why in the world the stuff has to be so gosh-darned
heavy,” he told his daughter. “I’m not as young as I used to be,
you know. I watch the way you and Tobias muck out the stalls and
you two act like it ain’t nothing. What’s the secret?”

Hailee cocked her head to one side as if he
had just asked her to reveal every hidden thought in her mind.
“What?”

“What’s the secret behind mucking stalls like
you’re having the times of your lives out here?” Bruce reached back
for the fork, realizing how much still had to be done before moving
along to the day’s next chore–and the ranch hand who would be
expecting him shortly.

She laughed, removing it from his hands.

“Oh, I don’t know. Tobias is a lot of fun, I
guess. He makes me laugh, so it’s really not like we’re working at
all. We do lots of the chores that way,” she grinned. “I’ll finish
up here, Daddy. Why don’t you stick around and see how much you can
make me laugh?” she teased.

Bruce waved a hand at her. “Nah, I’ll leave
that to the expert. Time for me to feed some hungry cows,” he
winked.

Hailee gave a forced poke into the pile,
heaving a load into the wheelbarrow. When she realized how full it
already was, she couldn’t help but give a grimace herself. Emptying
the wheelbarrow wasn’t exactly one of her favorite chores, but with
Tobias lending a hand to the repair of the house water pump, she
knew she was on her own with this one.

“Heave ho,” the girl told herself aloud,
shoving the wheeled mess forward.

By the time she realized the wheels had
gotten stuck in a patch of mud and then caught on a few rocks,
Hailee understood her father’s aching back. Struggling to tip the
mess over and into the growing pile that her father would be
spreading out in the hay field come fall, the co-owner of the Red
Bone Ranch added her stinky contribution.

Returning to the barn, Hailee mucked that
last load for her father and dumped it with the rest, spilling some
of it on the front of her dress.

“Well, that’s attractive,” She grumbled,
although it was not the first time it had ever happened to her.

Overhearing the men talking unusually loud,
Hailee returned the wheelbarrow to the barn, hanging the fork back
in its proper place on the heavy nail on the wall before heading
over to all the noise.

“
Whoa! Hold on right there,”
she heard one of them shout. “That’s far enough!”

The water pump for the house had
malfunctioned earlier, leaving Richard without any water for
cleaning the kitchen up or preparing lunch; Tobias and two others
had been attempting to repair the mechanical parts, but as she got
closer to the group of men huddled over it, it didn’t sound very
promising.

“The pin fell down in the shaft. We just
gotta get another one, simple as that. Who wants to go into
Rosita?”

Glancing over his shoulder, Tobias squinted
and held a hand up to his eyes, shielding the sun. “Hey, anyone see
Duffy today? That’s what’s missing–I haven’t seen him all day.”

Richard shook his head. “Didn’t come in for
breakfast, so don’t ask me.”

Tobias had a look of irritation on his face
now; spotting Hailee, he nodded his head toward the tack room.
“Hey, you wanna run over to Duffy’s area and see if he’s in there?
Nobody’s seen him all day and we need an extra pair of hands
here.”

In compliance, Hailee darted over to the tack
room, only to find it empty.

“Dang it,” Tobias mumbled. “When you actually
need the man…”

Hailee glanced down at her dress. “Well,
boys, I’m headed inside to clean up some.”

“Oh, no, you’re not,” Richard replied. “Not
with our pump down. Best get to walking down to the creek to clean
up. I’ll go up and fetch you a clean dress from your room. Which
one do you want?”

While Richard was upstairs, Tobias and the
other men gave opinions about where they figured Duffy might
be.

“All I know is, he’s not here right now and
he best have a good reason for disappearing like this. He’s always
hiding out in his work room, organizing and doing nothing, if ya
ask me,” one of the younger hands offered. “Seems like he always
has something to do if a good sweat is gonna be involved.”

Tobias nodded his head. He understood his
work mate's frustration; he’d felt the same way a time or two. His
eyes trolled the landscape. Barn, hog pen, vegetable garden, horse
arena, outbuildings. Finally, a thought came to Tobias and he
snapped his fingers.

“Hey, what if we’ve been going on and on
about Duffman being missing and he’s laid up in his bunkhouse sick
or something? Here it is, nearly eleven in the morning, and
nobody’s even checked his living quarters. I’ll head on over and
check things out,” he offered.

Tobias only shook his head. “Duffy better be
sick, or I just might hurt him,” he grumbled.

P

With her left hand, Hailee yanked the soiled
dress up and over her ankles, just enough to watch her step. Bared
feet stepped into the chilly water and her lips pursed a bit; it
had been too long since she her last romp in the creek, she
thought.

One step after the other, Hailee lowered
herself toward the center of the rolling waters, allowing its
healing weight to ease away both the stall mucking and her sore
limbs.

Eyes shut and face toward the Colorado
sunshine, the young woman allowed the crispy coolness to wash over
her shoulders and neck. A large boulder serving as a convenient
seat gave Hailee her own aquatic throne as she began humming a tune
to herself, head swaying ever so much when she realized the cicadas
surrounding her had joined in song.

“
I
am bound for the Promised Land, I am bound for the Promised Land;
oh, who will come and go with me? I am bound for the Promised
Land
.” Hailee let one of her favorite songs
soothe her mind in a different tone as her ears half-way covered
with water.

A lazy grin eased its way across her face as
her song began to find its ending, but that grin came to a sharp
close when she felt eyes watching her; she’d spent less than twenty
minutes in comfort and her initial thought at being disturbed was
one of annoyance.

One eyelid raised very slowly, just in case
she had been mistaken and was indeed alone.