Deadman's Crossing Read Online Free PDF

over the deputy’s horse, to land hard and heavy on Bill. Bill let out a howl and was knocked off his mount. When he hit the road, his hat flying, Gimet grabbed him by his bushy head of straw-colored hair and dragged him off as easily as if he were a kitten. Gimet went into the trees, tugging Bill after him. Gimet blended with the darkness there. The last of Bill was a scream, the raising of his cuffed hands, the cuffs catching the moonlight for a quick blink of silver, then there was a rustle of leaves and a slapping of branches, and Bill was gone.
    “My God,” the deputy said. “My God. Did you see that thing?”
    Jebidiah dismounted, moved to the edge of the road, leading his horse, his gun drawn. The deputy did not dismount. He pulled his pistol and held it, his hands trembling. “Did you see that?” he said again, and again.
    “My eyes are as good as your own,” Jebidiah said. “I saw it. We’ll have to go in and get him.”
    “Get him?” the deputy said. “Why in the name of everything that’s holy would we do that? Why would we want to be near that thing? He’s probably done what he’s done already.... Damn, Reverend. Bill, he’s a killer. This is just as good as I might want. I say while the old boy is doing whatever he’s doing to that bastard, we ride like the goddamn wind, get on out on the far end of this road where it forks. Gimet is supposed to be only able to go on this stretch, ain’t he?”
    “That’s what Old Timer said. You do as you want. I’m going in after him.”
    “Why? You don’t even know him.”
    “It’s not about him,” Jebidiah said.
    “Ah, hell. I ain’t gonna be shamed.” The deputy swung down from his horse, pointed at the place where Gimet had disappeared with Bill. “Can we get the horses through there?”
    “Think we will have to go around a bit. I discern a path over there.”
    “Discern?”
    “Recognize. Come on, time is wasting.”
    They went back up the road a pace, found a trail that led through the trees. The moon was strong now as all the clouds that had covered it had rolled away like wind-blown pollen. The air smelled fresh, but as they moved forward, that changed. There was a stench in the air, a putrid smell both sweet and sour, and it floated up and spoiled the freshness.
    “Something dead,” the deputy said.
    “Something long dead,” Jebidiah said.
    Finally the brush grew so thick they had to tie the horses, leave them. They pushed their way through briars and limbs.
    “There ain’t no path,” the deputy said. “You don’t know he come through this way.”
    Jebidiah reached out and plucked a piece of cloth from a limb, held it up so that the moon dropped rays on it. “This is part of Bill’s shirt. Am I right?”
    The deputy nodded. “But how could Gimet get through here? How could he get Bill through here?”
    “What we pursue has little interest in the things that bother man. Limbs, briars. It’s nothing to the living dead.”
    They went on for a while. Vines got in their way. The vines were wet. They were long thick vines, and sticky, and finally they realized they were not vines at all, but guts, strewn about and draped like decorations.
    “Fresh,” the deputy said. “Bill, I reckon.”
    “You reckon right,” Jebidiah said.
    They pushed on a little farther, and the trail widened, making the going easier. They found more pieces of Bill as they went along. The stomach. Fingers. Pants with one leg in them. A heart, which looked as if it has been bitten into and sucked on. Jebidiah was curious enough to pick it up and examine it. Finished, he tossed it in the dirt, wiped his hands on Bill’s pants, the one with the leg still in it, said, “Gimet just saved you a lot of bother and the State of Texas the trouble of a hanging.”
    “Heavens,” the deputy said, watching Jebidiah wipe blood on the leg-filled pants.
    Jebidiah looked up at the deputy. “He won’t mind I get blood on his pants,” Jebidiah said. “He’s got