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Western adventure
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Category:
Western
ISBN-10: 151882286X
Type: Fiction
Pages: 224
Copyright: October 2015
ISBN-13: 9781518822865
Price: $1.24 (eBook)
A crippled boy saves a woman from being abused by outlaws, then, while under siege, holds them off for three days while he and the woman battle not only the outlaws but dehydration from lack of water.
George, a malformed and crippled boy, finds his world turned upside down when he is taken from the safety of the farm where he lives with his mother. After being forced to join in a bank robbery in which a woman and child are killed, he finds that he must join them hiding out in a box canyon. When one of the outlaws forces a woman they have kidnapped, into a log cabin with the intention of raping her, George comes to her rescue and kills the outlaw. The woman and boy then find themselves under siege from the rest of the desperados who have vowed revenge. Without food or water they find that they must dig into reserves of endurance and fortitude they did not realise they even possessed. Can they hold out until the posse, who have run into troubles of their own, arrives, before they either die of thirst or at the hands of the outlaws?
Excerpt
She turned her gaze to the stricken man who still lay on his side with his knees pulled up to his chest. He wasn’t moving but he occasionally allowed a soft moan to escape his lips. She saw he had lost a great deal of blood for it had seeped into the mattress where he lay.
‘I will see what I can do to make him comfortable, but nobody can help him now. If you allow your step father to come here, he will almost certainly kill you and you must know that too.’
Just then Roy’s voice rang out again from below.
‘Hey Zack, what’s happening? How come Rat’s still alive?’
Rat went to stand beside the only window in the cabin and peered round the edge of the frame. He saw that both Roy and Cal were standing at the bottom of the slope staring up in the fading light. He turned to the woman.
‘I’ll help you but only because I’m afeared of what they will do to you, not because I’m worried about myself and I’d appreciate it if you’d try and do something for Zack.’
Roy called out again but this time there was some hysteria in his voice.
‘Zack, I’m comin’ up if you don’t answer.’
Rat watched from the window as Roy muttered something to Cal Reagan, then he began climbing the steep slope.
‘I’m on my way up Zack.’
Rat rested his rifle on the window sill and took aim before slowly squeezing the trigger. The bullet kicked up dirt close to the toe of Roy’s boot and he yelped as he recoiled and barely saved himself from tumbling back down the slope.
‘What the fuck?’ he yelled. ‘What the hell you playin’ at Zack?’
‘Zack’s dead.’
Roy heard his step brother’s voice, but found it hard to comprehend what he had said and not because he didn’t speak clearly, he had been around Rat long enough to be able to understand him by now. He simply could not comprehend that Zack was dead and that crippled excuse for a human being was still alive.
‘What you talkin’ about cripple?’
‘Zack’s dead, I shot him.’
‘The hell you say. If you’ve back shot my brother I’m gonna skin you alive then string you up by your goddamn balls you ugly sonofabitch.’
‘I didn’t back shoot him, I gut shot him and he was facing me with a gun in his hand.’
‘You goddam liar, I’m gonna kill you myself.’
Roy pulled his colt and started climbing the slope again.
‘Don’t come any farther Roy.’
‘Fuck you.’
Another shot rang out and shattered Roy’s gun hand. He screamed out and lost his footing before tumbling the rest of the short way to the bottom of the slope.
Rat watched him as he lay on the ground holding his shattered hand with his other one. He saw Cal Reagan who showed no concern for the injured man, say something to him before hurrying to where the horses were picketed and saddling one. After he had readied his horse, he mounted the animal and set off at speed toward the canyon entrance.
‘He’s going to tell pa.’
Cait stood behind Rat as he knelt by the window and watched events unfold.
‘Stay strong, your step father is just a man the same as your brothers.’
‘He’s a man, but he aint nothing like his sons, he’s got a lot more sense than they have and I’m afeared he’ll find a way to get at us.’
TEN
Cal Reagan dismounted below where he figured Jim would be holed up.
‘What you doin here so early Cal?’ You aint due your stint ‘til morning.’
Cal looked up to where he thought the voice had come from and pinpointed a large rock half way up a slope at the side of the canyon.
‘I got some bad news Jim.’
Sutter appeared from behind the rock and made his way down the fifteen feet or so to the canyon floor.
‘Don’t tell me the woman’s escaped.’
‘Nope, I wish it was as simple as that.’
‘What then?’
Never one for compassion, Reagan went straight to the point.
‘Zack’s dead.’
Sutter stared at Reagan unable to fully comprehend what he had said.
‘What?’
‘I said Zack’s dead.’
‘What the fuck you talking about?’
‘Your little cripple gut shot him.’
‘Are you joshing me Cal?’
‘I’m deadly serious Jim. Zack forced the woman up to the cabin intending to have a bit of fun with her and Rat went up after them rifle in hand and shot him.’
Sutter fell silent as he processed Reagan’s revelation about his son, then…
‘You absolutely sure about this Cal? Did that ugly bastard really kill my boy?’
‘Well I aint seen the body, but the only one yellin’ from that cabin is the cripple so unless Zack’s been struck dumb, he gotta be dead. But that aint all, cos when Roy started up the slope to see why Zack wasn’t talking, Rat shot him as well.’
‘What! He’s killed Roy as well?’
‘No, just shot his gun hand, but it looks like he gonna have to learn to shoot with his other one now.’
‘Goddamn it Cal, I can’t take this in. How the hell did that cripple manage to shoot both my boys? He aint never stood up to anybody in his whole goddamned life and he’s only got one good hand. Are you tellin’ me he suddenly grew a pair of balls?’
‘Well he sure found some defiance from somewhere unless he’s gone loco. Personally, I think he’s gone crazy for the woman and he’s trying to protect her.’
‘Christ-a-mighty, I told him to take care of her but I didn’t tell him to shoot anybody.’
‘I guess he took you at your word.’
Sutter hurried to where he had hidden his horse and quickly mounted.
‘I don’t believe he killed Zack, I’m gonna go and find out for myself.’
‘Do you want me to stay here and watch for the posse?’
‘Right now I don’t give a damn about the posse, I just wanna get back there and see my boy for myself and if he really is dead, I’m gonna string that goddamned little varmint up by his goddamned balls and poke his goddamned eyes out with goddamned stick. You’d better come back with me, we might need to flush him out and it will take more than one gun.’
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