Tyranny by William W. Johnstone

property, Mr. Brannock.”
    Silence from the top of the rock. Kyle figured G.W. was stunned, because he was pretty thunderstruck himself.
    Finally, G.W. said, “That’s crazy. Like I told you, my family’s owned this valley for more than a century.”
    â€œYour family was in illegal possession of it.”
    â€œNobody ever told me anything about that! We’ve paid taxes on the land, worked it, turned it into something good. . . .”
    â€œIndeed, you have,” Finley said. “No one is claiming that you acted improperly, Mr. Brannock. You were only going by what you thought to be true. As I told you, the clause in the land grant was discovered only recently. Woody and I have been making some preliminary surveys—”
    â€œSneakin’ around!”
    Finley shrugged and said, “Call it whatever you’d like. We’ve simply been doing our job and gathering information before the BLM moves to take possession of the property.”
    â€œTake possession? You mean steal the valley from me?”
    â€œIt’s hardly stealing,” Finley said as he shook his head. “This is federal land, Mr. Brannock. Public land. And as soon as the proper paperwork is filed, that will be official. Someone will arrive to serve notice to you to vacate.”
    â€œAnybody who shows up tellin’ me to get off my land is liable to get a hot lead welcome!”
    Kyle winced. He understood that his grandfather was angry, and with good reason. But threatening federal agents with a shoot-out wasn’t a very good idea. They had gotten more and more trigger-happy over the past few decades.
    Finley said, “Now that you know who we are, is it all right for us to get out of this pool? The water from the springs that feed it is rather cold.”
    Again G. W. took his time about answering, but he finally said, “All right, you can get out.”
    â€œWe’d like to have our wallets back, too.”
    â€œFine. Then you can climb in that jeep and get the hell out of here.”
    â€œWe were about to conduct some tests—”
    â€œWell, now you’re not goin’ to. You’re gonna leave and not come back, you understand me?”
    Finley said, “We can leave, but we’ll have to come back. Or someone else will. Nothing is going to change what’s about to happen, Mr. Brannock. You can’t stop the federal government. It would be like trying to hold back an avalanche with your bare hands.”
    â€œI’ve got more than my bare hands,” G.W. snapped. “Keep pushin’ me, and you’ll find out.”
    With water streaming from their lower legs, Finley and Todd waded out of the pool.
    â€œKyle, put those billfolds down and back away,” G. W. ordered.
    Kyle dropped the wallets on the ground at his feet and started to back off to put some distance between himself and the two federal men. Todd stalked over to the wallets and bent down as if he were going to pick them up.
    Then, while his head was lowered, he lunged forward and tackled Kyle around the waist, knocking him backwards off his feet.

Chapter 20
    T his was the second time in as many days that Kyle had been attacked like this, and he didn’t like it.
    He managed to twist some as he fell, so he didn’t land flat on the ground with Todd’s weight on top of him. His hip took the brunt of the painful impact, but that was better than risking broken ribs and having the breath knocked out of him.
    Kyle whipped a punch to Todd’s left ear and drew a howl of pain from the man, who was a couple of inches taller and probably outweighed him by forty pounds. Because of that, Kyle had no intention of fighting fair. He rammed his right knee into Todd’s groin.
    Todd really yelled about that. But even though he was hurt, he lashed out with a fist that caromed off Kyle’s jaw and rocked his head back. For a second Kyle saw even more stars than there really were in the