Blood of the Mountain Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

else in the room who stuck his lip into my business.”
    “You just bought yourself a whole mess of trouble, mister,” another of the three said.
    “You got it to do,” Smoke told him. “Fists or guns. It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me. Step up here and toe the mark.”

Four
    The three looked at each other and smiled. “You know who you’re about to tangle with, drifter?” one asked.
    “Three braying jackasses.”
    The men flushed as anger overtook them. “You want him, Carl?” one asked.
    “Let’s put a rope on him and drag him,” another suggested.
    “Fine idea, Shell.”
    Smoke looked at the third man. “You have a name, or did your mother just throw you out with the garbage and forget about you?”
    “Why, you! . . . Yeah, I got a name. Ned.”
    “Well, come on, Ned. Don’t be shy.”
    The men again exchanged glances. They’d been riding roughshod over people for years. At no time had they ever run up on anybody like this tall stranger.
    The locals were doing their best to hide their smiles. And it did not go unnoticed by the three rowdies.
    “You think it’s funny now, citizens,” Shell told them. “But when we finish with this yahoo, we’ll settle your hash, too.”
    “You won’t be able to do anything in about five minutes,” Smoke told him. “None of you. Now either shut your damn mouths or step up here. What’s it going to be?”
    Ned cussed and walked up to the bar. Smoke hit him in mid-stride, his left boot still off the floor in a half-step. Smoke hit him with a solid left that pulped the man’s lips and knocked him flat on his butt on the floor.
    Shell and Carl rushed him. Smoke turned, picked up a chair, and splintered it across Shell’s face. The blood flew and Shell joined Ned on the floor.
    Carl’s eyes widened and he did some fast back pedaling, but it was too late. Smoke stepped in and began hammering at the man with both fists, the lefts and rights landing like small bombs, and sounding like them.
    Carl swung a wild blow and Smoke grabbed the man’s forearm and tossed him over the bar. He landed on the ledge amid dozens of bottles of whiskey. The mirror jarred free of its braces and fell on him, shattering in hundreds of pieces. Ned was staggering to his feet just as Smoke grabbed him by the neck and the seat of his jeans and propelled him toward one of the big front windows. Ned started hollering as soon as he realized what Smoke had in mind. His bellering was cut short as Smoke tossed him through the window. Ned sailed over the warped boardwalk and impacted against and wrapped around a hitchrail. Ned did a little acrobatics around and around the rail and landed on his back in the street, the wind knocked from him.
    Carl was staggering around behind the bar, trying to figure out what had happened. Smoke cleared it all up real quick by grabbing the man by the bandanna and brutally hauling him over the bar. Carl’s eyes were bugged out and he was making choking sounds. Smoke began spinning him around and around in a circle, Carl impacting with tables and chairs and knocking them in all directions. Smoke released his hold on the bandanna and Carl went sailing across the room, right through the second large window and out into the street. Carl was thrown up against, a horse and the animal reared in fright and kicked out with its hind legs. The steel-shod hooves caught Carl right in the butt and the would-be tough went sailing across the street. He landed on his face in the dirt, out cold.
    The citizens in the saloon were enjoying every minute of it, wide-eyed and smiling.
    “Oh, hell!” Shell said, getting to his feet and facing a mean-eyed Smoke Jensen.
    Smoke smiled at him and then reared back. Shell bounced off a wall and very unwillingly came toward Smoke. Smoke stepped to one side, grabbed the man in the very same manner he’d done with Ned, and threw him out into the street. Shell landed in a horse trough and wisely decided to stay there.
    A very