Chapter 3

The twins went through the 4^th Grade without any major incidents at school. Several of the kids who were taking the strengthening and the elementary martial arts classes decided that they wanted to organize a formal group, so they got together to form what they called the Silver River Knights (SRK). They never got around to having formal meetings or anything like that, but they did form a solid front whenever bullies started putting too much pressure on students in grades 1-4.

Initially, Jack and Nell were the nominal leaders of the SRK, but that lasted only until they “graduated” into 5^th Grade and moved on into Jefferson Davis Middle School (JDMS). Uh-oh, it started all over again. The JDMS bullies were most of the same ones whom Jack and Nell had met at the elementary school, but there were a few new ones who had not previously met the twins. The old hands tried to warn the uninformed to leave Jack and Nell alone, but the macho urge was too strong for those guys to pay attention.

However, the bullies had gotten more sophisticated and had learned that they wanted nothing to do with the trouble they could get into by fighting at school, so they saved their worst activities for after school or on weekends. As it happened, two of the SRK members had been promoted to the 5^th Grade along with Jack and Nell. Neither one of these two, Hank Ambrose and Sarah Brewster, were as skilled or as well trained as Jack and Nell, but they did their best and were not afraid of a few nicks and bruises. These four were the nucleus of the SRK in the middle school.

Early on, there was a flare up of trouble with the worst of the bullies. Six of the bunch decided to have a little fun with the SRK after school. Silver River was not large enough to have school bus service for any but the elementary school, so the kids all had to find their own way home, usually by bicycle or walking. Actually, the bullies were very clever in their trap.

The bullies picked a street that was used by only a few kids and set up what they called a “toll booth.” They blocked the street and sidewalks with their bodies and would not let any student past who did not pay the 5¢ toll. That was such a small sum that most kids paid and went on.

However, two of the SRK kids, Hank and Sarah, were caught in the toll trap. They were smart enough to know that two 5^th Graders were no match for six 8^th Grade boys, so they paid their 5¢ toll and went on. The bullies were amazed to find out that they had made $1.95 with their scam, so their interest shifted from having fun with four 5^th Graders to turning this into a money-making scheme.

However, it did not stay that way for long. The next day at school, Jack and Nell were told about the toll booth scam. All four kids vowed to put a stop to this nonsense that afternoon. By this time, Jack and Nell were wearing their batons everywhere they went, and any adult who saw the “stick” hanging from a kid’s belt figured that it was just part of some sort of new game. Therefore, they had their batons with them at school that day.

The four members of the SRK planned to arrive at the toll station at a slack time. That way, few innocent bystanders would be hurt if an actual fight developed. All four normally rode their bicycles to school, so it was easy for them to meet and approach the bullies as a group. As it happened, none of the bullies recognized any of the SRK members when they were stopped at the toll station. One of the bullies said, “Okay, you know that it will cost you 5¢ each to go through this toll booth. Pay up, and you can go.”

Jack had been appointed as the leader of the four SRK members, and he said, “No way are we going to pay you crooks to use a public street. Tear this nonsense down right away or we will report you to the cops.”

Well, no bully can tolerate a direct challenge, so he raised a fist to strike Jack. Jack had no idea where the blow was aimed, but that was not important. He jerked out his baton and poked a measured stroke into the attacker’s solar plexus. The attacker fell to the ground not able to breath freely, but Jack didn’t follow up on his initial blow in order to see if there were a need for further action.

Yes, there was. As expected, each of the girls was under attack by two boys, but Hank was only having to deal with one boy. Jack made an important decision at that point: he went after the boy attacking Hank. If he were out of the way, then Jack and Hank could each take on one of the two boys attacking each girl.

No sooner thought than begun. Jack hit the boy fighting with Hank a blow on his back with all of the power that Jack could muster. The boy happened to have some tension in his back at the moment of contact, and the blow landed across the area of both kidneys. The bully screamed in pain and collapsed immediately.

That left Jack and Hank to take on one of the boys ganging up on each of the girls. By this time, Nell was using her baton, so Hank had little to do. On the other hand, Sarah was only able to use her hands and feet. The boys had already gotten in a couple of hardy licks, and Sarah was fading fast.

Jack smashed one of the bullies on his knee with the baton, and that broke the knee cap—a very painful blow. Jack was so pleased with that strike that he used it on the other bully. Nell finished up with her attackers at the same time, so now they had six bullies on their hands, all with some very painful blows, but only two of them looked really serious. After a short four-way conference, Jack and Nell broke a knee cap on each of the other bullies. All of the bullies were now committed to a hospital stay, and all of them were probably going to have a permanent limp, considering the state of medical technology at that time.

Nell called 911 and explained the situation. She asked for enough ambulances for the six boys, but Silver River did not have that many. The injured were going to have to be transported in waves. Oh, well, what was a little more pain among bullies?

On the other hand, this seemed to be a quiet time for the cops, so four showed up to check out the situation. Jack told what had happened, with emphasis on the illegal collection of tolls for the use of the street. Every cop was sympathetic with the SRK and released them to continue home. The 911 dispatcher had already called the city maintenance department about cleaning up the blocked street.

When they got home, Nell related the incident to Mary, but they decided to tell John and the rest of the family about it as the supper time entertainment. The twins went to work on their homework as was their normal after school habit.

Nothing much came of this adventure, except that the six boys spent some time in the hospital and were very subdued when they got back to school. Being on crutches did that to people. Nothing was said officially at the school, but bullying dropped off to next to nothing for the next few months.

Summer finally came around, as it had a habit of doing, and school let out for the worst of the hot weather. This left most of the kids at loose ends, including the membership of the SRK. One of the kids suggested that they start patrolling the city of Silver River looking for bad things that the cops were too busy to get around to or were just too minor for the cops to bother with. That sounded like a good idea, so Jack and Nell were again “volunteered” to work out the details.

The first thing they did was to speak to John about it. He could not see anything wrong with the idea, but he felt that they should make sure that the cops knew what the kids proposed to do. Therefore, he made an appointment with the Chief of Police, Dave Harris, and Mayor Watson so that Jack and Nell could plead their case. Mayor Watson was still a big fan of Jack and Nell dating from when they had rescued his daughter Helen from the rapist. He invited Chief Harris, who suddenly had the time for the meeting, to come by the mayor’s office when John, Nell, and Jack would be there.

Everybody already knew everybody, so the meeting started off very favorably for the twins. John opened the business phase of the meeting with a simple statement, “Gentlemen, the school kids have come up with a unique way of spending the summer: they want to do something that they see as a civic duty. Nell has been appointed as their spokesperson, so I will let her make her presentation now.”