Status Updates From Seven Buried Hill

The ax stayed where it was, the head poking through. An eye suddenly appeared in the bullet hole—wide and frantic as it searched the room. It spotted Catherine and locked on her. Now it was Catherine’s turn to scream. Henry blew the eye away with one shot.

This time nobody laughed. He felt eyes peering at him through the darkness. He doubted any of them believed a word he’d said. He couldn’t say he blamed them. If he were listening to some man he’d found in the woods recite the same story, he might put a bullet between his eyes just to get him to stop talking about it.

He’d seen men take countless bullet hits, only to die from infection or sickness. William Guffey from Rockwell had taken two rifle shots to the chest, removed the bullets and stitched up the wounds himself, and died from a spider bite two months later. A spider had put the man bullets couldn’t kill in an early grave.
Funny.

Henry screamed. Never had he screamed in all his life from fear. But now that he had, he couldn’t stop. When he faced forward again, he nearly collided with Red. The look on his friend’s face matched the panicked sounds exploding from Henry’s throat. Without saying a word, Red raised both his pistols and started firing.

“I’ve had plenty of training with guns and knives, Mr. Hardin. My father thought it might be best since I would be next in line to take over the fields after he passes on. Protection, you understand. I know this pistol doesn’t look like much, but if I shoot you in the throat, you’d bleed to death within four minutes. By then, I’ll be outside, on my horse and heading off to find somebody else to escort me.”

Two chapters in and I'm a little irritated with these grown men taking on teenage girls. I know it was a different time, but as a dad, its hard to get past.
Rufty tries not to make the one in chapter 2 not as bad by making the guy 22, but 22 doesn't fit the image he's portraying with this gruff, super experienced Eastwood type.
I'll push on as I love most of Rufty's work.