Showdown With Fear Read Online Free PDF

But what about Dan? Here was a man with hidden depths, a man who brooded, but who made it clear that he needed her.
    Helen wanted to do something. She threw the trousers she was mending on the floor and stamped outside into the heat.
    ‘Hey... what the hell’s up with you, girl?’ Her father called after. But there was no reply and he went back to columns of print about beef prices and new entertainers just arrived in town.

 
     
    Chapter 3
     
    ‘What the hell is that?’ Pete asked himself as he was shoved, still gagged and bound, into the cave. What amazed him was a massive gun with a whole bundle of barrels.
    ‘Get the kids in the back hole, and move the door across. You watch ‘em, Grip,’ John McVie ordered. The prisoners were pushed into a small space about six by ten feet, into the guts of the mountain, and a huge wood board was thrown across a gap in a wattle wall. They only had glints of light inside, but at least their gags were ripped off.
    ‘Give them some grub, Barero... some oatmeal, and we got biscuits somewhere,’ John said.
    Pete and Sara had seen a man sitting by the Gatling gun just back from the entrance to the cave. He had been keeping watch while the gang were away. The place was impressive, like a giant house of about six rooms, all made from the hollow scooped out by nature. There were huge stocks of food and drink, piled to the ceiling, and rifle-cases stacked three deep in rows of ten.
    At last the captives could talk, even though John had told them to shut up. But their arms were still tied behind, and when the food arrived, Barero had a bowl of meal and a bag of hard biscuits; he spoon-fed them in turn, deliberately wiping meal on Pete’s face.
    ‘Hey... the leetle girl is so fine... I weel pay you a visit tonight, hey lady? You need a man in here, not a leetle boy like thees huh? Now eat this - only a few insects in it, I think?’ Sara spat some chewed biscuit back at him. His first reaction was to reach for his knife, but he stopped himself, and instead, he took her chin hard in one hand and yanked her to his lips. Sara bit him and he yelped like a pup.
    ‘You mongrel beast!’ She screamed, loud enough to bring John into the room. He soon weighed up the situation, and controlling himself with difficulty, he told Barero to get out.
    ‘Better get Grip in here to feed you kids... he has no, erm, desires... except strangling folk, I reckon.’ He smiled to himself.
    ‘McVie... what’s the game here?’ Pete asked.
    ‘Ah, the hard man speaks! You gonna be a hard man like your pa, son? You think you’re in any position to ask me what my game is? You insolent rat... I’ve got some plans for you... but first we have to lure that yeller pa of yours into here... what d’you think will make him come, hey? I’ll tell you... the thought of being a hero... the thought of being liked again... that’s what’s gonna bring him here, to die.’
    Pete was soon being fed again, this time by the giant hands of Grip, who never said a word. He just fed them both, spat on the straw, and left, sliding the wood across again and leaning on it. All Pete and Sara could do was listen to the talk. Pete resolved to take it all in, to work out any plan possible to do something to help, something to get back at this lot.
    ‘I wish you could hold me, Pete... I’m so low! How could anybody do what they did?’
    Sara was weeping, breaking up again at the thought of what had happened.
    ‘They’re the lowest scum you kin find, Sara. But there’s a way to beat ‘em, and my pa’s out there, I know he is... he’ll be here... he’ll come for us!’
    *
    Dan and Pearce had lain in the undergrowth for the rest of the night, then at sun-up, they covered Savory’s body and mounted, ready to get some distance covered before anybody could find them. They knew that the outlaws would be looking for them still.
    ‘Where are we goin’ anyways? I’m asking you because you’re the professional in these things...