Galen's Ethic

Chapter 10 - A Lesson

Galen sat at the table listening with an outward calm, but Lydia could see the hand on his mug squeezing so hard she was afraid it would shatter to dust.

"Several boys, classmates of Audrey, came by and began shouting and throwing stones at him. I was frightened he might shoot at them, but he just swore and ran off. They said his name was Reed, and he was always hanging around when school was out. We're both okay, Galen. Harley was very upset, and I think Audrey was disappointed again.

"I tried to tell her that her dad wouldn't have a chance against any of those men - that they were all gunmen and bullies." She reached across the table and took his hand. "I know what you're thinking, Galen, but Huber will be finished soon, and it will all go away."

He relaxed his grip on the mug and held her fingers in his. "We both know Huber won't just up and leave. There has to be a final reckoning."

"But why you? Why is it always you?"

He smiled. "In this case, Miss St. Claire, because I started it." Her face fell, and she melted back in the chair, head down. "Hey," he said softly, "it's who I am, Lydia. I can't help that - and I'm not even sure I want to."

She nodded and looked up at him. "Yes, I figured that. I suspected it right from the moment I was attracted to you . . . I just thought- doesn't matter what I thought." She stood and came around the table, taking his face in her hands. "I don't want to lose you, Galen Helliwell."

******

Huber stood fuming at the counter of the telegraph office, waiting for an answer from the railroad company. The nervous operator had pretended to tap out a message earlier, and was trying to explain that they weren't just sitting there at the other end waiting for Barrow Falls messages. It fell on deaf ears, as Huber pounded the counter angrily.

He read the paper the lawyer had given him again, seething. The figure O'Halloran had given him for his property, without the building, had blocked his common sense. Visions of his name connected with the new hotel would triple that figure in quick time - so he had dreamed. Now, suddenly, nobody seemed to know anything about a consortium, a new hotel or even the people Huber swore were involved.

"If you want, I can deliver it when it comes in. Or you can keep comin' back every hour or so."

"Fine. I'll be back." He stormed out and, Charlie let out a nervous breath.

"Horace! get in here, boy." A young lad ran in from the back of the office. "You take this message to the sheriff and wait for a reply, then you get back here quick as you can. Got it?"

Half an hour later a panting Horace skidded to a halt beside Charlie's table, a reply clutched in his fingers. Charlie took the paper and read the words, then tapped them into his machine and printed them out on a telegraph paper.

"Good job, Horace, here's a nickel, now don't spend it all at once."

******

"Here she is, Mr. Huber." He handed him the message he had copied. "Came in not two minutes ago."

As Huber read the words, his face flushed a violent red, and he stared at the operator, scrunching the paper into a tiny ball and hurling it across the room. The telegraph office door slammed, knocking a framed certificate from the wall, the glass breaking as it landed.

Charlie picked up the paper, and prying it open, read what he had copied, with a grin. Nobody had ever heard of a Railroad Riverboat Consortium, and nobody had been sent to Barrow Falls to investigate the construction of any hotel.

Harley tensed as his shop door open and banged shut behind Darcy Huber. He moved cautiously to the counter, clearing his throat and asking why he was there.