ASSAULT OF THE MOUNTAIN MAN
WILLIAM W. JOHNSTONE
PINNACLE BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Title Page
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
A LONE STAR CHRISTMAS
Copyright Page
Notes
PROLOGUE
Bill Dinkins was thirty-eight years old. Standing five feet ten inches tall with sandy hair and blue eyes, he was a man that women found handsome at first look. But there was something about him, an evil glint in his eye, the curl of a lip that, upon further examination, frightened women away. One fine fall day Dinkins, Loomis Caldwell, Gary Beeman, and Henry Kilpatrick rode into the town of Buffalo, Colorado, and went straight to the bank. While two of the four stayed mounted, Dinkins and Caldwell went inside and asked for five twenty-dollar gold pieces in exchange for a one hundred dollar note.
While in the bank the two men checked it out, noticing a back door they assumed opened onto the alley. Once they left the bank, the four men rode up and down Decker’s Road a couple times, checking out the lay of the town, then they rode up the alley to see where the bank door opened.
When the four men first rode into town Glen Davis, the town marshal, thought nothing of it. But when he saw them ride up and down the street twice, then go into one end of the alley and come out the other, he began to get suspicious. “Bobby, let’s you and me go outside,” he said to his deputy.
The four riders, still unaware that they had attracted attention, rode back into the alley and tied their horses to an empty freight wagon. They split up, with two going into the bank through the front door and two going in through the back door. Three customers and the bank teller were inside.
“Up against the wall!” Dinkins yelled to the customers. He handed the teller a cloth bag. “Fill the bag with money,” he ordered.
With shaking hands, the teller began to comply.
Outside, Marshal Davis and Deputy Mason were approaching the bank with their guns drawn.
“What’s going on, Marshal?” someone called.
“Get a gun,” the marshal replied. “I think the bank is being robbed.”
With that, at least four other townspeople armed themselves and came over to join Davis and Mason.
“Bill, hurry it up!” Caldwell shouted. “There is a lot of people comin’ toward us, and ever’one of ’em is got a gun!”
“Give me the bag,” Dinkins ordered.
“I haven’t finished filling it,” the teller replied.
