Rebellion in the Valley (14 page)

The concerned look on his face caused Tobias
to tilt his head some and scan the man, the horse, and then Bruce’s
face once again.

“What’s the matter, Boss?”

“Ah, nothing. I thought I felt my saddle
slipping. I don’t feel like getting down and fixing right now.
It’ll last til we stop for lunch and I’ll check ’er then. Hey,
Duffy!” he hollered back behind himself. “You made a pretty decent
breakfast. What are you planning for lunch?”

Duffy shook his head. “It’s a surprise!” he
replied out loud. Then he mumbled to himself, “and that ain’t no
joke, neither.”

P

“I had an aunt who knew all of ’em,” Bruce
announced, referring to the foliage.

“All I really know is, they sure are green.
Well, most of ’em,” Tobias told him. “Some of ’em, I learned can be
used for curing a cold or for eating when the getting gets rough.
But I don’t know all that much, really.”

Dust kicked up under hooves and an eagle
swooped down low enough for the men to take in a good peek.

One of them pointed toward the sky, eyes
scanning for one more look at the beautiful bird.

“We don’t get to see that very often around
here,” he observed. “There’s a nest of them over on the Arkansas
River, right in that area where the road swishes back and forth.
Kinda surprised to see her over this way.”

Twisting in his saddle, Bruce clenched his
jaw and all but halted his horse.

Thinking the cat had been spotted, a couple
of the men followed suit and Tobias allowed his eyes to follow the
line of boulders and hidden crevices a little more carefully. Once
he realized the air smelled crispy clean, he turned his eyes toward
Bruce, who continued to fidget on top of his horse.

“Boss, what's going on over there?”

“Eh, I’m gonna have to stop once we get up
this stretch,” his head nudged toward the clearing just up ahead.
“Something don’t feel right here.”

The men continued on, resuming talk about the
eagle and her nest over on the Arkansas. General consensus agreed
there must be a few more mouths to feed or maybe the river had
gotten a bit over-picked for her to have been flying in this
area.

“Tobias!”

The young ranch hand’s neck snapped toward
the sound of his boss’ sudden cry of his name.

But the call for help turned into a grunted
yelp as one of Bruce's ranch-roughened hands reached out to grab
his saddle horn, stark confusion and fear on his face as he gave a
desperate attempt to steady himself and prevent the fall he knew
would be inevitable.

When the loud snap of his leather cinch strap
sounded out over the canyon walls, it proved to be no safety net
for either Bruce or his horse.

With a last-ditch effort to save himself from
tumbling over the embankment and into his own his deathbed, Bruce
gave an instinctive thrust of his shoulders upward, as if that
single motion would somehow reposition his entire body a full foot
in the opposite direction.

It didn’t.

In an instant, the saddle heaved itself to
the right of the horse, promptly stumbling the massive beast over
the side of the narrow pathway; man and beast both spiraled down
the Puma Canyon wall.

Just as his right shoulder smashed against
the loose dirt and gravel clinging to the edge of the embankment,
Bruce felt gravity kick in and the weight of his body shifting once
again. His head lifted to avoid the impact he knew would be coming.
His eyes darted upward, landing square in focus with Tobias’
eyes.

Bruce’s heart thundered in his chest when saw
the look of utter terror in Tobias’ eyes, who sensed the
unintentional message of grave danger he felt himself in.

Not reassuring.

An echoing whinny vibrated through the canyon
as the horse attempted one last desperate attempt to regain its
footing. The sound of Bruce crying out for help as his body snapped
one limb after the other blended as one continuous sound while
rocks tumbled down and pelted his body.

Still perched atop his horse, Tobias felt his
lips move, but his mouth felt frozen while his throat squeezed the
very breath out of his lungs. A sudden fear-inducing adrenaline
rush pounding through every inch of his body caused his brain to
fuzz for a second or two.

“Boss! No!” Tobias called out far too
late.

A thundering crash came with every tree limb
the horse and Bruce fell through, and he could feel the flesh
ripping away from his arms, face, and back as he tumbled over thick
limbs and prickly scrub oak poking out from the canyon wall. Bits
of debris stabbed him in his eyes, and all he could see was a blur
as he felt himself tumble, smash against the side of the wall, and
then fall airborne once again. He could barely breathe as terror
filled his brain. Bruce was close to losing consciousness - and
worse. He knew it.

It was no use. They had fallen too fast and
too far to do anything but watch in horror.

Tobias dismounted in such a hurry, he felt
the impact jar his knees. But it didn’t slow him down a bit; he
scrambled to the edge and slammed to his knees, pressing the palms
of his hands deep into the dirt and gravel.

Other men dismounted as fast as they could,
but the canyon walls offered no footing to lower themselves down.
The edge fell as straight as a waterfall, branches and small trees
jutting out here and there.

Two of the men shouted commands to nobody at
all, wanting to do something, anything, to retrieve Bruce while one
of the others could only cuss and fling his arms about his head,
caught in the throws of an emergency without any idea how to handle
it.

Duffy screamed, “O my Lord! What’s going on
here? This wasn’t supposed to happen! Who’s gonna fix this
now?”

Tobias shoved the coward out of his way for
not offering to do so himself.

“Get me some rope, hurry,” Tobias hollered
out to anyone who had their wits about them. “Tie me to a tree and
lower me down. Maybe I can get to a point where I can do
something!”

Adrenaline racing through his entire body, he
glanced toward the men.

“Someone needs to go find Doc Amerley right
away, and bring the sheriff, too!”

“Sheriff Anderson’s got that gear in the back
of his barn! Gather up as many men as you can find and get back
here fast as you can,” he told those who were already climbing back
on their horses.

“Hey, Tobias,” the youngest one called back.
“What about Hailee?”

Tobias ran a hand through his hair. Crud!

“Oh, I don’t know. Don’t tell her anything.
Let me be the one…just stop by long enough to tell her there's been
an accident. But do not tell her any more than that, you hear
me?”

The man waved his arm in agreement and turned
in a flash, the dirt of the road kicking up behind the horses as
three men rode off.

Shouting over the edge and praying to be
heard, Tobias cupped both hands around his mouth and let out a loud
call, assuring Bruce he was on the way down.

“Hang in there, I’m comin’ down!”

Tobias looked Duffy square in the eye as the
men lowered him down over the canyon wall. He caught an empty glare
in return; it sent a chill down his spine. Their eyes remained
locked until Tobias had been lowered out of view, but Duffy’s gaze
stayed focused in the same spot for several seconds before a slight
grin began to tug at the corner of his mouth.

Chapter 14

“L
ower me down faster, will ya,” Tobias hollered over his head.
He could still see their faces clear as day, and that wasn’t good;
he was hoping to have been closer to the creek bottom by this time.
As he kicked at the side of the canyon wall to move the stray
branch out of his way, all he heard was a tearing sort of noise;
the rope attached to his waist began giving way. He looked up to
see a fray in the cording and the dangling man’s heart skipped a
beat. He felt the sweat beading up on his forehead and for a split
second, lost the tight grip he held on the rope. Feeling himself
jerk as he began to sway backward, the man tilted his head upward
and swallowed hard.

“Hey! The rope’s gonna snap! Pull me back up
- and make it quick, too,” he added.

It didn’t take long for the group of men to
realize the most efficient way to get Bruce out of that creek
bottom was going to be on foot. They were gonna have to get down
there and pull him out on horseback.

One of the ranch hands gave a quick look
around for straight branches that could be used to form a cot to
carry him out of there on as the ranch hand wearing the red flannel
pulled on Duffy’s coat sleeve. He pointed at the darkening skies
over the canyon and shook his head. “It’s gonna hail-that breeze
comin’ in is pretty darn cold. We best get crackin’ here or Bruce
is gonna be in for loads more trouble than we can get him
outta.”

Duffy snorted, mostly to himself.

Tobias yanked his own flannel shirt’s collar
a little bit higher around his neck and squinted his eyes as he
looked up. He knew his friend was dead right about the coming
storm.

“All right, men. Saddle up and let’s get this
done already! We gotta get the boss outta there right now! Duffy,
you take up the rear and see to it that everyone gets down there.
I’m taking Epoenah and headin’ straight in.”

He was gone before Duffy could make any
protest.

“Always suckin’ up to the ranch master, that
one is,” he grumbled just loud enough for a couple others to hear
his words.

They both cocked their heads and looked at
one another in astonishment; Duffy had been coming up with some
stuff recently that left the men wondering where he’d gotten it
from. But this was not time to be airing differences, so they chose
to shake their heads and carry on in silence instead.

Just as Duffy figured those cowards would
do.

“Ain’t nothing’ but a green whisppersnapper,
and he figures he got the world by the tail, he does! I ain’t never
seen the likes of that one just walkin’ in and takin’ over like he
owned the place,” he continued on with his rant.

The more the anger built up inside the man,
the louder he got.

The other two men shook their heads again.
They weren’t about to tackle him, not alone and back in the hills
with nobody else to witness what they said or did.

The trio set out on the dirt road and pulled
the brims down tighter on their heads; raindrops pelted in quick,
stabbing insults as if to mock their situation.

P

Tobias almost didn’t wait for Epoenah to halt
before he dismounted her; in a fluid motion, one leg swung up and
over the flanks of Hailee’s mare while the opposite hand pulled on
the few medical supplies he’d thought to bring along in the canvas
bag tied together with a leather thong. It pulled away from the
rear of the saddle as fast as he’d hoped it would.

His boots hit the grass underfoot with a thud
and the .45 in his holster jostled from the impact. Instinct drew a
hand to the black powder rifle strapped to his back and another to
the ammunition to make sure he plenty on hand.

With darkened eyes squinted and only the back
of his hand to shield himself from the oncoming hailstones, Tobias
struggled to dodge a couple of heavy, dead cottonwood branches from
swinging down on top of his head.

Puma Canyon, scattered with debris from the
aspens and pines so common in the area, left an almost overwhelming
scent when combined with packed, wet leaves. Hailstones smacked up
against pine needles, inviting them to open up and offer the canyon
an even deeper whiff of pine.

Tobias and Epoenah stepped with careful, yet
swift strides to ensure their footing wouldn’t slip in the mud and
grass. Not having been down in the canyon itself for a couple of
years now, it became apparent the old pathway he’d been on before
had long since grown closed. Forced into pulling her hooves up
higher than usual in order to get through the muck, Epoenah
whinnied her own opinion of having to do so. The farther they
trudged forward, the man grimaced, concern filling his mind that
Bruce might be unable to shelter himself from the storm...or any
other intruder.

Shaking his head, he scolded himself. No need
to think the worst; Bruce is just downstream somewhere, waiting to
be patched up and carried off, that‘s all.

His hike into the canyon proved Bruce had
toppled over the edge at the exact spot he thought; he could see a
distinctive line of broken branches trailing down the canyon wall
on the left-hand side.

“That’s it,” he told Epoenah. “Here we go,
girl.”

Together, they pulled on another eighth of a
mile when Tobias called out loud enough for his voice to echo
downstream a way.

“Bruce! Hey, Johnson, where are you?” he
called.

No answer.

“I’m comin’ after ya, Boss. You just sit
still til I get there. Holler at me, would ya?” he almost begged.
“Boss!” his voice echoed throughout the canyon.

A stirring of birds overhead swayed in golden
branches of aspen boughs, the clicking of pine needles and the
whoosh of hail thundering down through the canyon.

Requiring no invitation to join Tobias when
he tucked up under a rock embankment to wait out the hail, the mare
nuzzled up next to him as if she were asking for a hug around her
neck.

He closed his eyes as an arm encircled the
mare.

Something was not right and somehow he
smelled Duffy all over it…

Chapter 15

“L
ook up at the sky. It’s been bustin’ loose a few miles over
that way and we’re fixin to get it here before nightfall, I bet. A
good ‘n hot stew sure goes down better when it’s chilly outside,
don't you think?” The ranch hand opened his eyes wider and asked
Richard if there might be any buttermilk biscuits included with
their meal as he reached over and grabbed a couple of apples to
snack on while he finished his chores for the afternoon. “And
Hailee,” the added off the cuff, “you might wanna know there’s been
another rat in the feed bins; I shooed him out but I know how you
get,” he teased her.