Midnight Rescue by Catherine Marshall

Author:Catherine Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc.
Published: 2010-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

Six

Christy knelt down. “What is it, David?”

“Jugs, lots of them! Moonshine whiskey! I should have recognized the smell.”

“But . . . right here, underneath the school?” Christy cried in disbelief.

She heard voices and turned to see several of her students. Ruby Mae hung back from the group. Her face was red and blotchy from crying.

“Miz Christy,” asked Creed Allen. “What intarnation is wrong with all these hogs? Mabel’s walkin’ like she’s got her legs screwed on backwards. And the rest of ’em—well, I ain’t never heard this much hog-snorin’ in all my days!”

“Christy,” David called from under the school, “can you take these jugs from me? I’ll hand them to you, one at a time.”

“Just a minute, David. Some of the children are here—”

“Let them see!” David called angrily. “Let them see the evil hidden under their own schoolhouse.”

“What’s hidden?” asked Little Burl Allen, Creed’s sweet six-year-old brother. “Is the preacher a-playin’ hide-and-seek, Teacher?”

“Not exactly, Little Burl,” Christy said, just as David passed her a thick brown jug. She set it on the ground. The children stared at it curiously.

“Moonshine?” whispered John Spencer, one of the older students.

“There’s moonshine under the school?” Creed cried. “No wonder them hogs is snorin’ so loud! They’s drunk on homemade whiskey!”

Most of the children began to laugh, although a few of the older boys, like Lundy Taylor, kept watching Christy guardedly.

“I know it seems funny,” Christy said as she accepted more jugs from David. “But this is no laughing matter, children.”

“I’ll say it ain’t,” Lundy muttered darkly. “My pa says you-all are messin’ where you don’t belong. This ain’t the business of a teacher or a preacher-person.”

David crawled out from under the floor space. His face was smudged with dirt. His eyes were hot with anger.

“I heard that, Lundy,” he said as he stood.

“And let me tell you something you can pass on to your pa. When I find illegal liquor on mission property, it becomes my business, whether your pa and his friends like it or not.”

David stooped down and grabbed one of the jugs. He uncorked it and sniffed the contents with a look of disgust. Then he turned the jug upside down. The amber liquid gurgled and spattered as it poured onto the ground. The air filled with a sharp, sweet smell.

“You ain’t got no right to throw away good moonshine like that!” Lundy cried.

“There’s nothing good about moonshine, Lundy Taylor,” Christy said with feeling. “Didn’t you see what happened to Doctor MacNeill?”

“But ain’t that worth a lot of money, Teacher?” Creed asked innocently. “Pa says moonshine fetches a big price, ’specially over the state lines where it’s hard to get.”

“It’s also worth a lot of pain, Creed,”

Christy said.

David uncorked another bottle. His hands were trembling. Christy had never seen him so furious.

“Children, I want you all to go back inside now,” she instructed.

“But what about them hogs?” Little Burl asked, worried.

“They’ll sleep it off, Little Burl,” Christy assured him, patting his tangled hair. “Don’t you worry.”

“When my grandpa gets to drinkin’, he’ll sleep for two days straight,” said Bessie Coburn.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.