“Miss Thurloe,” he said, “you were stopped last night on your way home. Can I be of any assistance to you? I know you have only your mother to protect you.”
The girl gave him a grateful look, and explained that Goldman had repeatedly forced his attentions on her. She had done her best to send him about his business, but he continually annoyed her, even going so far as to enter the school-house, interrupting lessons and making himself generally obnoxious.
Cutler smiled grimly during the girl’s hesitating recital, saw her safely to her destination, and then went home for a sleep. At three o’clock that afternoon he walked leisurely towards the school-house, stopped at the fence just by the rear door, and chatted with the boys, it being the recess hour. Suddenly, approaching from the opposite direction, he beheld Goldman, who walked straight into the school-house without having seen the gambler. The latter waited for a few moments, then he also entered the building. Reaching the schoolroom, at the end of a short hall, he found the door locked, and promptly threw himself against it with all his strength. The door gave way with a crash and Cutler leapt in, to see the schoolmistress struggling in the arms of Goldman. She was fighting like a tigress, but the Jew’s hand, held tightly over her mouth, prevented her crying out. Directly Goldman beheld the saloon-keeper he released his prisoner, who sank back panting upon a chair, and glared savagely at the new-comer. Cutler, ignoring him entirely, walked slowly toward the agitated schoolmistress and stood still, waiting for her to speak.
Goldman, however, was the first to do so. “Oh, no wonder I’ve no chance,” he burst out, viciously; “Cutler’s as lucky in love as he usually is at cards.”
Cutler flushed at the gibe, but he said not a word, waiting for the girl to speak. Presently, having in a measure recovered herself, she rose and approached the gambler. “Mr. Cutler,” she said, unsteadily, “this man has insulted me repeatedly. Just now he tried to kiss me by force, and I’m afraid I shall have to give up my position here and leave Three Corners.”
In a very gentle voice Cutler asked the girl to leave the room for a few minutes. After she had gone he turned toward Goldman, who stood looking at him defiantly, his arms folded across his chest.
“If you were a man,” he said, sternly, “I’d drop you where you stand, but I’m going to teach you a lesson that’ll do you a heap of good.” Then, with a sudden bound, he grasped Goldman by the throat, threw him across a desk, and, with a three-foot ruler, administered a thrashing such as might be given to a recalcitrant schoolboy, only with somewhat greater severity. The punishment over, Cutler picked the man up and, dragging him across the floor, threw him bodily out of the building. Now Goldman was himself a powerful man, but Cutler’s action had been so swift and decisive that the Hebrew had practically no chance to offer resistance. Once freed from the gambler’s hold, however, he turned and flew at his adversary with clenched fists, snarling furiously. Cutler stood quite still, and just as the Hebrew came within the proper distance his right fist shot out straight from the shoulder. It landed square on Goldman’s jaw, and he dropped like a log.
Several of the school-children, attracted by the noise, now crowded round, vastly excited. Cutler, having informed Miss Thurloe that he believed she would not be further annoyed, but that he would keep an eye on “that fool masher,” walked slowly toward the town, leaving the vanquished draper lying where he had fallen.
It has been necessary to explain all this in order that readers of The Wide World Magazine unfamiliar with the ways of the Far West may better understand what follows. I have said that the better element had in a manner of speaking driven the original settlers at Three Corners to new fields. These new-comers looked upon Cutler as an “undesirable.” His reputation as a “man-killer” did not appeal to the emigrants from the cultured Eastern States, who would gladly have seen him pack up and leave the town. Goldman was quite aware of this, so, directly he recovered himself, he asked for and obtained a warrant for Cutler’s arrest on a charge of assault. The gambler was arraigned before the local magistrate, where he steadfastly refused to give any reason for the chastisement he had inflicted upon Goldman. The latter immediately realized the advantage of Cutler’s chivalrous reluctance to drag a woman’s name into the affair, and so swore that the assault was entirely unprovoked and committed out of “pure devilry” on Cutler’s part. Cutler was fined fifty dollars and severely admonished by the Court. Everyone wondered why this acknowledged “bad man” did not promptly wreak vengeance on the Hebrew. The gambler, however, desiring to protect the name of the school-teacher, said not a word, but paid the fine and went about his business as though nothing had happened.
