Read The Circuit Rider for Free Online

Daniels. Tower had met many, many men like this
one. Weak, except when it comes to people who are even weaker.
    “Fine, we’ll talk right here,” Daniels said, as if
the decision was solely his. “So, I know you’re busy spreadin’ the Word of God and
all that good stuff, but I prayed to the Lord and asked him when you might be
leavin’ town.”
    The men behind Daniels were close enough to hear,
and they snickered.
    “And you know what? The Good Lord actually spoke to
me! He said you’d be dragging your sorry hide and that drunken whore of yours
out of town tonight!” Daniels said, a big smile on his face. “Yes, sir. Straight
from the Lord’s lips. What’s that make me, some kinda angel? Or a prophet? Ooh,
I like that. The book of Ike Daniels, man of the cloth!”
    Daniels was playing to his little crowd, and Tower
was running out of patience.
    “Did He tell you to beat Nancy Hockings, too?”
Tower said.
    He watched the smiles fall from the faces of Daniels’
men. Ike himself seemed to take a step back.
    “What was that, Preacher? Not sure I heard you
right,” Daniels said, the bravado now gone from his voice.
    Tower stepped closer to Daniels so they were inches
apart.
    “I think you heard me just fine,” Tower said. He
felt the old anger rise inside him and he tried to tamp it down, but the heat
was radiating through his body.
    “I asked you, Did God tell you to smack around Nancy
Hockings? Or was that something you just felt entitled to do?”
    Daniels glanced down at Tower’s hips.
    “You’re lucky you ain’t carryin’ a gun, otherwise
you’d be meeting your precious Maker right about now,” Daniels said. His face
was flushed with the knowledge he was being humiliated in front of his men.
    “You’re lucky you’re carrying yours right now,”
Tower said. “Otherwise I’d give you a taste of what you’ve given Nancy, and who
knows how many other young women?”
    Daniels’s face went rigid.
    “Yeah, I figured that would scare you,” Tower said.
“I’m a man. Fighting girls is more your style.”
    Daniels fumbled at the buckle of his gun belt,
unhooked it, and let it fall to the ground.
    He swung from the hip. It was meant to be a surprise
punch, but Tower saw it coming.
    He caught the punch under his left arm and threw
his own right, not from the hip. Instead, it was a short, brutal punch that
Tower added leverage to by redirecting the force of Daniels’ own strike.
    Tower’s fist connected with the chin of Ike Daniels,
and Tower saw the man’s eyes roll back into his head and he went limp.
    Tower let him sink to his knees, then, with Daniels’s
arm still trapped, he corkscrewed his body and felt Daniels’s arm break.
    The snap was audible and the pain briefly brought
Ike Daniels around, long enough for him to moan.
    His men surged forward to help their boss, and Mike
Tower turned his back on them.
    And then he walked away.

Fourteen

    A dust devil welcomed Bird Hitchcock back into the
small town of Green Spring. The miniature cyclone seemed to come out to greet
her, Clyde Hockings, and the two horses, each carrying a dead man.
    A few people came out of the saloons and stores to
watch the procession as it made its way to the sheriff’s office.
    Hockings, by prior agreement with Bird, left the
group and headed home.
    Dundee wasn’t at the sheriff’s office, so she tied
the two horses with the dead men to the nearest rail and headed to the saloon
for a drink.
    There were more people in the place this time, Bird
noted, as she walked to the bar.
    “Give me some of that good stuff . . . the whiskey
Van Osdol drinks,” she said to the bartender.
    She took out some of the money the lawyer had paid
her in advance and set it on the bar.
    When the bottle came, she drank three straight
shots in a row, each filled to the brim. The scalding welcome of the booze
filled her stomach and she felt an eerie calm seep through her body.
    She was reaching for the bottle again when a hand
tried to