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.

"I want to know about the deal you made with the railroad to buy this property." A fist slammed on the counter.

Harley swallowed, this was the moment he was told to expect. "I- I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't hornswoggle me, Duggan. You agreed to sell for a place in the new hotel that was going to be built here." Darcy's voice rose with each word.

Harley leaned on the counter, his own face set in a mask of steely control. "You will keep your voice down, Mr. Huber, while in my shop. And you will refrain from banging your fist on my counter. Now I don't know how all that demolition dust from your building has affected your brain, but I don't have any idea what you're talking about."

"Your lawyer! That O'Halloran, he said he made a deal for you with the RRC!"

"I don't have any lawyer, Huber, never did, and as for some deal wih - what was it - RRC? I have absolutely no idea what you're on about."

Huber hesitated. A response stuck in his throat like half swallowed food. He raised a hand and stopped again as Harley snapped at him.

"You can take your crazy ideas and your bad manners and leave my shop right now." He started around the counter, and Darcy blinked, backing up to the door. "Out! Now!" Harley opened the door and closed it firmly behind a stunned Darcy Huber.

When he turned back, his daughter was standing in the rear doorway, grinning from ear to ear, pride oozing from her expression.

******

Galen found Abner chatting with the general store owner, and asked for a private word.

"Why don't you just get Miss St. Claire to make a complaint, and I'll go arrest him?" Abner shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

"Ain't gonna happen, Sheriff. It isn't the first time, and it won't be the last, no matter what any judge decides."

"Galen, I can't just let you go and provoke a fight so's you can gun him down."

"Won't be any guns involved unless he goes that way. I just aim to teach him a lesson about hittin' women and young girls. Figured you should know in advance."

Abner sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I can't stop a good bare knuckle fight if I don't know about it, I guess."

Galen nodded. "Thanks, Sheriff. I'll try to keep you out of it."

Abner heaved another sigh and fired up the stub of a cigar, as he watched Galen walk down the street toward the dock. Strange fella.

In spite of his mood, Galen couldn't restrain a smile at the pile of broken rubble that used to be the Huber Trade and Shipping Company office. Several men were filling wheelbarrows and wobbling off down the dock to dump the contents. He approached one man wiping dust and grit from his face.

"Dirty work, eh?"

"And dumb if you ask me." The man stuffed the dusty rag in his back pocket, and glanced up at Galen, shading his eyes from the sun. "You want somethin'?"

"Lookin' for a fella named Reed. You know him?"

"What do you want him for?"

"To talk. You know him?"

Galen's voice gave the man pause, and he lifted a hesitant arm, pointing toward the boarding ramp.

Three men stood casually by the railing of the boarding ramp talking and smoking. As Galen approached, they all stopped to watch him heading towards them.

"One of you boys named Reed?"

"Who's askin'?"

"Me. You Reed?"

The men split up, moving apart cautiously. "What's your business, mister?"

"With Reed, so you gonna tell me which one you are?"

"I'm Reed," the scowling man on Galen's right said. "Happy?"

"You other boys can leave now. This is private."

"Hold it. They don't have to go nowhere. State your piece, and make it fast." Reed looked uncertain.

"I'm here to let you know what I think of a sick skunk of a man that molests young girls and women."

Reed just stared, his eyes flicking to his friends.

"On your way boys, don't make me ask again."

"Wait a minute there fella--"

Galen's gun appeared in a flash and the two men backed away, hands in the air, waving that they wanted no part. When they were well away, the gun went back in the holster and the belt came off and was draped over the railing.

"That young girl was the daughter of a friend of mine, and the woman was mine. Animals like you need to be taught about what crossing those lines mean."

Watching from beside the remains of the Huber office building. Abner held his cigar still in his lips. Reed looked at his departing friends then back at Galen. He wet his lips and then made a grab for his gun.