Free Thoreau at Devil's Perch by B.B. Oak Page B

slowly.
    Gran came running to us, still carrying the heavy musket. Badger staggered out of the sugar shed right then, and wound back his arm to strike me with his nasty blackjack. Gran raised the musket and pointed it at him.
    â€œDon’t budge another inch, you soulless villain,” she said. Her voice trembled with rage, but her hands were steady. “As a Christian woman I won’t kill you, but this load of birdshot will do some damage for sure.” She lowered the muzzle and pointed it at a region every man holds dear. “And it will be the last of you pestering girls.”
    That got Badger’s attention. He changed in an instant from a vicious cur into a wheedling conniver. “I meant no harm, ma’am. The miss appeared willing enough when I found her alone picking mushrooms.”
    â€œYou lie!” Harriett cried out. “I beseeched you to leave me be, and when you wouldn’t, I screamed loud as I could.”
    Badger did not look toward Harriet but kept a bleary eye on Gran’s gun. “I reckoned she was just havin’ sport with me.” He grinned, showing his gums and a few rotten teeth. “Frisky little mares like her like to put up a fuss afore they get broken in.”
    â€œShut your filthy piehole, mister, and get your stinkin’ carcass off my property,” Gran told him with a wave of her gun.
    He snorted. “I wager that old blunderbuss don’t even fire, you old hag.”
    â€œEither you will lose that wager,” I said, taking a step toward him, “or lose a fight to me again.”
    Badger looked from me to Gran’s gun and back to me again. He then whistled for his horse, and it ambled out of the woods to him. He mounted it slowly, and I saw he was in pain from my blows. But he was not yet through making trouble. He unwound a whip from around the pommel of his saddle and raised it to slash down at me.
    The next second the air was filled with a roar and choking smoke as the musket discharged and threw a barrelful of shot just past Badger’s head into the tree above him. A thick limb was blasted clear and fell down amidst shattered leaves on both man and horse. The horse reared and bolted off through the trees in a panicked runaway that threw Badger sideways one way and then the other, bouncing his hindquarters against the trunks of several maples as he hung onto the saddle. Such a sorry sight it was that Harriet began laughing a bit hysterically until horse and man were out of sight.
    After Harriett calmed down and we started toward the house, I announced that I was going to the Justice of the Peace and have a warrant issued for Badger’s arrest.
    Gran shook her head. “Don’t you do that, Adam. Badger won’t come back here. There’s easier pickings in town for his lust, and we got to think of Harriet’s honor. Don’t matter she was innocent of any wrongdoing. Folks gossip most awful about something like this, and them’s those who like to lay the blame on the female, no matter what. Harriet’s coming of age to marry, so we got to just let this rest.”
    â€œI will at least inform Badger’s employer Captain Peck of his appalling behavior. I want him to assure me he will keep Badger in line,” I said, and Gran did not object to that.
    When I returned to town I went directly to the office to check on the Indian. Julia was watching over him, and she reported that he had not stirred at all. As I examined him, she looked most concerned.
    â€œI see no inflammation,” I told her. “And although he remains insensible, his heartbeat is much stronger. He appears to be in excellent physical condition, and I am optimistic he will recover.”
    â€œThen so am I,” she said, yet apprehension remained in her eyes as she studied me. “What has happened to upset you so, Adam?”
    I had thought I was hiding my outrage well by keeping my demeanor calm and my countenance