Sacrifice to the Emerald God Read Online Free PDF Page A

frightened woman finally released her death grip on her large, straw purse and slowly untied the broad strands of soft, white fabric that was tied around her neck, her eyes fastened to the now shaded eyes of the bandit. When it was loose, she pulled the straw chapeau from her head and handed it to him.
          “ Gracias, mi doňa, ” the man said with false politeness. He took the hat in his hand and made a motion to toss it into the quickly speeding by river and then seemed to think better of it. He placed it on his head. It was two sizes to small for him, but he was able to make it stay by mashing it down and stretching the straw fabric. His appearance was now a bizarre imitation of the young woman’s former mien.
          “Look at me, compadre s,” he shouted out. “I’m a gringa tourista! ” He laughed heartily, flicking the loose ends of the broad white cloth descending from its brim over his shoulders like Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel. He then looked down at Margie. “How do I look, enamorada ?” he said to Margie, leaning over and putting his face dangerously close to hers. The young woman was too frightened to respond. His appearance was like a gross caricature of all the cartoons she had ever seen depicting a Mexican bandido . But Diego didn’t really expect an answer. He liked to watch the fear in his victims’ eyes while he taunted them. This chica was going to be a lot of fun.
          He took his hot, strong hand and placed it on Margie’s thigh. Margie cringed as she felt his fingers dig into her flesh. She wanted to brush them off, to move away from the ominous man, but she was paralyzed with fear. The large, heavy, vice-like hand began to move upwards on her leg, dragging the thin cotton cloth of her long, multicolored peasant’s skirt along with it. Margie gave out a quiet whine as she realized that the man was not going to stop until he had seen all of her charms. He was watching her eyes as the skirt slid northwards, exposing her freshly shaved shin and then her knee. She was lying on her hip, her other leg underneath her, but the skirt was loose enough that it could be raised all the way to her waist.
          When the hem of the skirt started to climb up her pale, white thigh, Margie decided it was time to act. It seemed to her that she had a choice of risking the fast moving water of the river with its alligators and other dangers, and hazarding an escape into the thick jungle which now closed over the river on either side, or to suffer whatever this man and his friends had in mind for her. They would rape her, she was sure of that. Probably all three of them many times. She could live through that, she guessed. But what would they do with her afterwards? She had a vision of her naked and broken body rotting somewhere on the jungle floor, a feast for carrions, or tumbling lifelessly along the river current until an alligator fished her out for his dinner. They might hold her for ransom, but who was to say that they would deliver her back to Tom and the civilized world alive? Why risk it? These weren’t the efficient, business like kidnappers she had heard about in Mexico or Colombia, whose reputation would suffer if they didn’t deliver the goods. These were bottom crawlers, criminals of the worst sort who lived from day to day, from crime to crime, and damn the consequences.
          Marjorie moved her leg slightly, revealing an expanse of the pale, tender, inner thigh of her bottom leg. As she had anticipated, the bandit’s gaze turned towards the enticing patch of flesh. And then she made her move.
          The desperate woman gave the bandit’s body a hard shove, or at least as hard as she was capable of. The man fell slightly to his right, off balance. Scrambling up, she drew back her knee and gave him a frantic kick with her foot, making his body topple over. Seeing her chance, she then turned and began to climb frantically over the side of the speeding