Strongheart Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the saloon and soon were slapping customers around. One of the victims came to fetch Dan, and Joshua happened to be with him. He tagged along behind.
    Each of the men had murdered before but had never been caught. With Joshua following, Dan walked briskly, with long, easy strides, to the family’s mercantile store. Joshua was very curious as to what would come next. Dan walked up to Abby, and she forced a kiss. Joshua grinned, knowing this man hated to show affection, but his ma would never let Dan get away with that where she was concerned. The marshal then walked over to a shelf of clothing and grabbed a pair of socks, and then to the hardware supplies along the far wall, where he grabbed a large wooden axe handle. Next, he went to a big jar of marbles and started pouring handfuls into one of the long boot socks. Joshua was still perplexed.
    â€œGot these marbles, Abby, pair of socks, and this axe handle. Put them on our account. Gotta get back to work. See ya.”
    Curious, she gave a half wave as he strode out of the store. He tied a knot into the end of the marble-filled sock while he walked, then stuffed it into the right pocket of the long tan duster he was wearing. Next, he slid the handle of the axe up his right sleeve, but it stuck out. He pulled it out and put it under his left arm, inside the long coat, squeezing it along his body with his left elbow and forearm.
    Without hesitation, he stepped up onto the wooden boardwalk and into the saloon. He spotted the three giants in front of the bar, and one had lifted a woman of pleasure up in the air, taking his own pleasure at the very obvious abject fear showing on her painted face. That man looked at the others and laughed, a booming guffaw that seemed to echo from a deep cavern.
    â€œLookee, boys,” he mused, “a teeny little lawman come to arrest us!”
    He laughed at his own joke and was joined by the others. Dan never broke stride and walked straight up to him. Off-balance, the brute dropped the red-haired tart on the rough-hewn bar with a thud and tried to gather his thoughts. He did not have time. The sock filled with marbles came out of the right pocket of Dan’s duster, swung around one time, and struck him with a louder thud on the left side of his jaw, breaking it and dropping him to the floor unconscious. Now Dan had one giant behind him and one in front of him, and they immediately closed in, but Dan had already untied the sock, and with his left hand he let the marbles fall to the floor behind him. That brute saw them too late and went down unceremoniously on his back with a thundering crash. In the meantime, Dan’s right hand grabbed the axe handle and raised it high, taking hold with both hands and now facing the third giant. The brute’s eyes opened wide as he saw the massive piece of wood coming down toward his head, and his eyes crossed looking up on contact, before rolling back as he fell to the floor unconscious.
    The victim of the marbles had now regained his footing and was about to grab Dan from behind, when Dan shoved the axe handle straight backwards into the man’s solar plexus and heard the wind leave him with rush. Dan spun around and swung the axe handle upward like a butt stroke with a rifle, and it caught the three-hundred-pounder under his chin, snapped his head back with the force, and he, too, went down out cold.
    Dan grabbed the woman and helped her down off the bar, saying, “Lucy, isn’t it about time you consider a different profession?”
    She was so amazed and still frightened that she could not even speak. She just fluttered.
    Dan said to the frightened, but now very relieved, bartender, “Fred, get some men and a buckboard and get these three down to the jail before they come to.”
    Fred said, “Yes, sir, Dan, and thank you very much.”
    Joshua was bursting with pride over the cool-headed way Dan had handled that crisis.
    As if he was reading Joshua’s mind,