Fire on the Mountain Read Online Free PDF Page A

Listen, you know what the men in town think about this? You know what the Chamber of Commerce thinks about this?”
    “I know, I know. They think—”
    “They think this business’ll make ’em all rich. Richer. And they think you are loco. Senile, that’s the word, they think you’re just a crazy old man in his second childhood. And they’ll think worse than that too, if you know what I mean. Obstructing national defense. You against one hundred and eighty million Americans.”
    “There ain’t that many. There can’t be.”
    “Well there is. And they’re busy making more right now.”
    “Well—they’re all back East somewheres. No kin of mine.”
    “They’re all against you. At least they’re not with you. That goes for Reese and Haggard too; they’ll sell out without any trouble, you wait and see.”
    “You’re with me.”
    “I’m with you. But—”
    “The boy is with me.”
    “Billy is with you. But that’s—”
    “Three men can stand off about a million of these—what do you call ’em—astro, astronauts.”
    “Astronauts. Yeah. But they have the papers and the law. They have Acts of Congress, national emergency, eminent domain, right of condemnation, declaration of taking. What do you have?”
    “What do I have?” My grandfather’s voice soared up again. “I have the land. My ranch. No government in the world is going to take it from me.”
    A moment of silence. “I really ought to go home,”Lee said. “Poor Annie waited up for me till twelve last night.”
    “You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying right here tonight. I told the boy you’d be going with us tomorrow. How do you think he’d feel if you …”
    “I know, John. I was only talking. I didn’t haul that horse fifty miles just for the ride, did I?”
    I stood awkwardly against the wall of the hallway, half-naked and shivering, one foot going numb and my knee aching. I wanted very much to see Lee before I went back to bed. On the other hand I did not want them to know I had been overhearing their talk. Though what I’d heard seemed unbelievable anyway. Unable to decide, I shifted my position a little to relieve my stiffened limb. In the night silence the old man heard the movement.
    “Billy?” he said. I gulped, unable to reply. “That you, Billy?” I heard the creak of a chair and Grandfather appeared in the doorway at the end of the hall, his glasses shining and his white mane aglow with the soft yellow night from the lamp. “Why aren’t you in bed?”
    “I wanted—I wanted to say hello to Lee,” I mumbled.
    And all at once there he was, looming up behind the old man and smiling at me. Lee Mackie, tall and slim and dark-eyed, a brave and gallant man. “Hello, Billy,” he said. He held out his right hand. “It’s good to have you back, Billy. You come down here and say hello.”

2
    Wake up!
    Hey, dude, wake up!
    Dreams evaporating, I felt a rough hand shaking the bed, opened my eyes and saw in the starlight the laughing face of Lee Mackie. I sat up at once, charged suddenly with excitement and a wild delight.
    His eyes gleamed in the darkness. “You awake?”
    “Yes. Yes,” I said.
    “Get dressed. Come and eat. We’re taking off for the mountain in ten minutes.”
    I slid out of bed and stood up shakily, rubbing my eyes. Through the window I could see the stars in unfamiliar constellations glittering like diamonds on the deep-velvet sky, a spray of stars so clear and bright they seemed no farther away than the leaves of the trees.
    “Here, I’ll light the lamp for you.” Lee felt for matches in his pocket, found them, struck fire and lit the wick of the kerosene lamp on the dresser. “How many eggs, Billy? Three or four?”
    “Four.” I looked for my suitcase. The clothes I wanted were inside it.
    “Hurry up. We’ll give you one minute to get dressed.” Lee backed off through the doorway and tramped away down the hall, whistling like a mockingbird.
    I opened the suitcase and pulled