Ordeal of the Mountain Man Read Free Page A

acknowledge. Along the ambitiously wide main street, several prosperous business establishments had hung out their shingles. The raw wooden side walls and fresh paint of the building facades testified to the newness of this thriving community.
    Among them were Harbinson’s General Mercantile, the Territorial Bank of Muddy Gap, the only stone building in town, Walker’s Saddlery, Hope’s Apothecary and Sundries, Thelma Blackmun’s Ladies’ Fashions, Tiemeier’s Butcher Shop, a blacksmith, the feed and grain store, and four saloons. At the north end of town stood a small, white, clapboard church. To the south, an equally miniscule schoolhouse.
    Inside the school, class had been in session since eight that morning. The younger students, with the shorter attention spans, had become restless, eager for recess. The older grades, three through eight, laboriously attacked their assignments. Virginia Parkins, the schoolteacher, was listening to the sixth grade read aloud when the door slammed open against the inner wall and three large, loutish youths swaggered inside. Although she had two fourteen-year-olds and one fifteen in the seventh and eighth grades, Virginia recognized these ruffians as being considerably older, the youngest not under sixteen. She looked on them with a frown of irritation.
    With expressions of blended contempt and disgust, the bullies strutted up the aisle and stopped beside the desk of young James Finch. One of them, a pig-faced boy named Brandon Kelso, spoke from the advantage of his height.
    â€œGit outta that desk, Jimmy. You ain’t got no business wastin’ yer time here.”
    Eleven-year-old Jimmy Finch cut his eyes away from the imposing figure standing over him. He swallowed hard and spoke in a near whisper. “I gotta read next.”
    â€œWhat’s that?” Brandon reached down with a large hand and yanked the slight, big-eyed boy out of his desk. “Your daddy needs you to help work stock. Now get yer butt outta this dump and do as you’re told.”
    Beside Brandon, Willie Finch, Jimmy’s older brother, sniggered. “That’s right, Jimmy-Wimmy, Paw sent me to fetch you. Git yer skinny little ass movin’.”
    Thoroughly frightened, the small boy started moving his feet before Brandon Kelso lowered him to the floor. Outrage at this invasion overrode the usual quiet, nonaggressive demeanor of Virginia Parkins. She came to her feet so abruptly that her tall, backless stool toppled over and the book in her lap hit the floor with a loud bang.
    All eyes turned her way. “Enough of your crude vulgarities, Brandon Kelso. You and these other louts need your mouths washed out with soap. Now, leave the children alone and get out of my classroom.”
    Brandon took a cocky step toward her. “Who’s gonna make us, Teacher?” He sneered the last word.
    Fat, porcine lips curled in contempt, Brandon Kelso studied the outraged young woman before him. She might make a good poke, he thought to himself, though he lacked any experience in such encounters. Couldn’t be much older than himself. Those green eyes and the auburn hair, her wide, pouty-lookin’ mouth, made his groin swell and ache just lookin’ at her. Never thought she had any fire in her.
    He had quit school four years ago, before she had come here. He got tired of doing the sixth grade a third time at the age of thirteen. Now, if she had been here, he might not have quit. She would have given him something to fill his . . . mind . . . with when he was sittin’ in the outhouse. He made kissing motions with his lips. Her unexpected reaction surprised him.
    Virginia turned sharply away and walked directly to one corner by the blackboard. She came back with a stout willow switch about four feet long. Before its purpose registered on Brandon Kelso, she began to lay about the hips and thighs of the three bullies. The limber switch made a nasty whir and sharp