The Law and Miss Penny Read Free

the quack doctor, who by now had been joined by the older woman and the "princess," he addressed what was left of the crowd once again. "My name's Morgan Slater, U.S. Marshal, and I'm telling you for the last time to go back to your homes. This show is definitely over."
    Whispering amongst themselves, the disappointed townsfolk slowly disbanded and went on their way.
    Zack glanced at his wife and heaved a weary sigh. "Damned if it ain't time to move along, missus."
    Oda struck a match against the side of the wagon and lit her stogie. "Damned if it ain't."
    Only Mariah took exception to the marshal's orders. It certainly wasn't the first time the Penny family had been thrown out of a town, and it most likely wouldn't be the last, especially if they should venture too close to a Mormon settlement as they had done last spring. But she couldn't remember ever being asked to leave in such a rude and degrading manner.
    The show wasn't quite legal in status in some areas, but they certainly had never done anything to invite prosecution. From town to town, and sheriff to sheriff, the terms of the ordinances varied, but even in the few places where the show was judged to be unacceptable, the law had always been polite about their dismissal, if not downright friendly. Exactly what had they done to anger this man so?
    As Zack and Oda began to collect their props, Mariah approached the marshal, hands on hips.
    "There's no call for you to talk to any of us that way, Marshal Slater. We're just good honest folks doing our best to make a living."
    "Honest, you say?" Taking her by surprise, Morgan caught her chin in the web between his thumb and forefinger, and then turned her head from side to side, examining her. "What kind of honest Indian do we really have here beneath all the phony ceremonial baubles? Surely not a Kickapoo. How about a Comanche? Or should I have said... Apache?"
    Her reaction was delayed by sheer astonishment, and the fact that the marshal seemed to know that something wasn't quite right about her. When Mariah finally took a swing at him, the lawman easily ducked the blow and stepped aside.
    He laughed, and then issued an ultimatum. "You have exactly one second to get your crooked fanny aboard that wagon, princess, or I'll confiscate this entire operation just as it sits and drive it off a cliff." His gaze shot over to Zack and Oda. "And I'll give you folks five seconds more than that to pack up, or that's precisely what I'll do." Then he turned on his heel and whistled for Amigo.
    Stunned by the anger she'd seen in the marshal's green eyes, the sheer force of his malevolence, Mariah brought her hand to her chin. Worried the lawman may have left finger marks in the cinnamon-colored greasepaint she used to make her fair skin darker and redder, she smoothed the makeup and then walked backwards toward the wagon, muttering to herself under her breath. When she reached her parents, she turned to them wide-eyed, and whispered, "What a rotten... bastard. What a dirty, rotten bastard."
    Within the allotted time, Doc Zachariah's Kickapoo Medicine Show was packed and rolling down Main Street, dragging the supply wagon behind it. The pair of sturdy mules, used to the double load, moved along at a steady, if unspectacular clip, leaving Marshal Slater and his best friend to bring up the rear in uncharacteristically poky fashion.
    They traveled for nearly three hours under increasingly overcast skies, and although it was early afternoon, the temperature began to drop to almost winter-like conditions. The folks riding on the front seat of the wagon didn't seem to notice the sudden chill, but Morgan tugged his hat lower on his forehead and buttoned the collar of his dark blue shirt. Cold and weary of the snail's pace set by the wagon, he decided that since he'd put some ten miles between Bucksnort and the medicine show and guided the troublemakers into an unpopulated area, it was time for a parting of the ways.
    Morgan galloped up