Eden's Hammer Read Online Free PDF Page B

banishment, and death. We’ll have no prisons or jails; however, in preparation for future growth down the generations, imprisonment is provided for, as well. Perry will be our judge, and all trials will be by peer jury. The jury sets the punishment if they find the person guilty. Perry’s also working on a new set of contract laws, which, it turns out, is more complex. Those, too, will be in plain English—well, as simple as possible, given the intricacy of commerce—and will be impartial between trading partners. I don’t expect to see those for a year or two, but they are codified into the new constitution by reference.
    “The other old friend I was talking about is Tim. I asked him to come and be our town marshal, so to speak. We’ll come up with a different name for it, I think, but his job will be to keep the peace on a day-to-day basis and bring charges against individuals as necessary. Indictments will be by a system similar to a grand jury. I asked Tim to come because he is extraordinarily level-headed and has integrity that people intuitively respond to. He’ll be fair and he has no ties in the village, other than being an old friend of Matthew’s, Perry’s, and mine. By the way, Tim’s hobby is long distance shooting. He has a fifty-caliber rifle that he can pick strawberries with at a half mile or more.”
    Adrian had only been partially listening to Roman. His focus was on keeping the village alive. Roman’s plans for the future were good and necessary, but there was a higher priority on Adrian’s mind at the moment. Adrian said, “This place is hopeless against a large band of determined raiders, Roman. We could give them hell for a day, maybe, but there are too many weak spots they could break through, and not near enough time to fortify those spots. Once this particular raider band is dealt with, we need to make those fortifications and then some. But for now, we’re obviously going to have to take it to the enemy and keep them away from this place.”
    Roman just nodded. He understood what was driving Adrian’s thoughts and wasn’t the least bit put off by his long, rambling speech being ignored. He also knew Adrian well enough to know that he had absorbed the important parts of what Roman had said; the boy could absorb information like a sponge and store it for future reference while doing something else entirely. It was one of the many reasons he had wanted Adrian to come home. Adrian wouldn’t be distracted from the mission of defeating the raiders by anything in Heaven or on Earth.
    March 3, mid morning
    They arrived at Matthew’s blacksmith shop and entered. Matthew was holding a sawed-off over-under shotgun that had been modified with a slide action from a pump shotgun.
    Matthew shouted, “Adrian! You’re a sore for sighted eyes! What got hold of you and where did you get that sorry haircut? Come over here and sit in the barber chair and let me fix that. On top of everything else, I’m the town barber now, too!”
    After they shook with strong grips, Adrian asked, “Barber? How in the hell did you pick that trade up?”
    “Aw, you know I’ve got two growing boys, and I was cutting their hair outside one day when someone walked by and asked how much I’d take for a haircut. Word spread, and next thing you know, I’m getting extra corn and bullets for something that simple. Cutting hair is easy. Sit down, I can’t stand looking at you; it looks like rats have been nesting in your hair.”
    “I cut it myself with a bowie knife back in the mountains,” Adrian said as he sat down in the barber chair.
    “Yeah, that would explain it.” Matthew started snipping. “This’ll only take a couple of minutes, and then maybe you’ll stop scaring defenseless women and children.”
    Roman took a chair and watched with a smile. “There was a reason I brought you here this morning, Adrian,” he said.
    Adrian asked Matt, “What’s that rig you were holding? Never saw an over under