Rebellion in the Valley Read Online Free Page B

seeing
his daughter so relaxed and happy; if only Cammi were there to make
sure their daughter made it home with the proper items a young girl
should have in her dresser drawers.
    “Six o’clock sharp, and yes, if that’s what
you want.” He answered both of her questions at once, moving his
eyes up and down the street, through the mass of people and fading
sunlight.
    Surrounded by a multitude of faces, the girl
assisted her father's search through the busy crowd, spying a few
of the ranch hands standing in front of the restaurant.
    “There they are, Daddy,” she pointed them out
to her father.
    Once decisions finalized on where to eat,
Bruce handed each man a generous amount of greenbacks for their
meals, rooms, and evening entertainment; he figured the men might
enjoy a drink or two at Jenkin’s Tavern before turning in, seeing
as how he didn’t allow them to have any on the ranch.
    He explained to the men, once again, that
they were to sign for any supplies they needed and he would make
good on the payments by four o’clock tomorrow, so they best be
finished with their lists by that time.
    The group agreed to meet back at the same
spot the day after next, at precisely six in the morning and parted
ways for the evening, each group heading off into different parts
of the bustling little town of Canon City.
     

Chapter 4
     
    G us
Hyde, owner of Canon City’s blacksmith shop, struggled as he bent
over the chunk of iron ore situated in the flame. Glowing a
red-orange, the shape in the man’s hand really didn’t resembling
anything in particular, not yet. Sweat poured from his entire face
and neck, each drop sizzling when it hit the iron; the shirt clung
to his back muscles, drenched from the intense heat and physical
labor.
    The sledgehammer, which he made himself, sat
next to his right side for the ease of grabbing it in a hurry.
    As the iron rotated around in the center of
the fire, Gus introduced a gentle blast of air near the piece,
waiting patiently until it began to glow an even darker shade of
orange.
    With a pair of tongs held tightly in his
hands, Gus gripped the glowing ore and turned it over to examine
the entire piece of work. Satisfaction came to his face when the
ore turned a shade closer to the color of a harvest moon in
September, and he reached down for that sledge hammer; bringing it
down with such massive force, a few flecks of bright orange flew
off from the glowing chunk he held firmly in the tongs.
    Once, twice, three times, he came smashing
down on it, turned the chunk, and repeated the process another five
or six times.
    Hailee wanted to visit with him, but she
could see that he was already a busy man today and decided to come
back later on in the day to visit with the man she had come to call
a friend of their family.
    She glanced into a few shop windows, not
really shopping, but just taking in all the sights and smells. The
city certainly looked and sounded much different than the mountains
of Rosita! In the mountains, she could hear her own heartbeat and
smell the pine needles after a big rain. The city carried heavy
coal smoke and she smelled liquor on every other man’s breath who
passed by.
    Main Street stretched down about eight
buildings on one side of the packed-dirt street and five on the
opposing side; in the business district of Rosita, only a couple of
stores were available for shopping, which wouldn’t have been so
bad, she thought, if it wasn’t for the fact that the town's five
saloons contrasted their shopping choices so drastically. And the
stores in Rosita certainly did not appeal to a young woman. Not
unless she found herself interested in hardware or farming
implements.
    Her blue eyes wandered to the farthest end of
the street and saw it littered with horses and donkeys laden down
with huge packages. Manure droppings lay everywhere and she
wondered whose job it was to clean up the streets, because they
were either lacking in their skills or didn't care to tend to