The Gallows Gang Read Online Free PDF Page A

movement ahead caught Shackleton’s eye, about twenty yards ahead. He froze; the two men behind were aware enough of his movements also to halt immediately.
    ‘Pablo, or Kurt?’ Elwood whispered, crawling along to lie beside Shackleton.
    ‘I reckon Kurt ain’t the kind of man who sneaks around in the dark.’
    Elwood grunted that he agreed. Then they carried on, this time moving more slowly than before, taking fifteen minutes to reach the sprawl of boulders where Shackleton had seen something move. There they waited, listening to the wind, the sounds of the guards moving around the cage….
    A crunch sounded as of a footfall on grit, followed by a second. Then, looming up against the night sky, a man walked to the edge of the watercourse, looking out towards the canyon. He planted his feet a few inches from Shackleton’s head and stood, rocking back and forth as he stretched his cramped limbs.
    From over by the canyon the faint sounds of movement  sounded, perhaps giving a reason for his having come forward to investigate.
    Presently the sounds petered out and so with a grunt to himself the man edged backwards a half-pace while looking around. His eyes took in the ridge above him. Then he looked to the cage and finally along the watercourse, his head swinging down as his vision lit upon the men lying beneath his feet.
    Elwood was the first to react. He lunged out with a firm hand and grabbed the man’s leg, then yanked it. Surprise ensured that the man didn’t put up a fight and went tumbling down into the dry watercourse. thereupon all three men leapt on him and subdued him, though not before he’d emitted a screeching cry.
    His alarm echoed amongst the gullies and passes of the ridge above as Barney delivered a solid blow to the man’s cheek, which crashed his head against the ground, making him flop. They held on to him for a moment longer to make sure he was out cold, but by then voices were rising up around them in the dark.
    Someone to their left hissed a question. Another person to their right uttered an audible demand for quiet while another said it was too late.
    Thirty yards down the watercourse two men appeared, looking towards the cage.
    ‘Is it happening?’ one asked.
    ‘I don’t think so. That sounded like Jim.’
    Gazing about him, the two men took in their surroundings. They couldn’t help but see the four men in the watercourse. Slowly they turned towardsthem. Then, with a grunted exchange, they scrambled for their guns, but Shackleton’s group had already drawn and they had a bead on them.
    Again using the unspoken understanding of each other’s intentions that didn’t need spoken orders Shackleton blasted two rapid shots into the man on the left while Barney and Elwood shot a slug apiece into the one on the right.
    Even before the shot men had hit the dirt they had rolled to their feet. Then, doubled-over, they ran towards the boulders from where the first man had emerged. They ducked down and peered out, awaiting developments.
    ‘They got Charlie and Lester,’ a voice cried out, now giving up all attempts to be quiet.
    ‘Where are they?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘It sounded as if—’
    Gunfire exploded, the sounds of the rapid shots echoing all around them, and the gunfire itself was just as wild and splayed.
    Shackleton judged that Kurt’s men were shooting from their various hiding-places along the ridge. They were firing blind with little idea as to where their targets were. So the shots were peppering over a range that went from fifty yards into the flat area to a point high up on the ridge.
    ‘There must be more men out there than we thought,’ someone shouted. ‘We’re surrounded.’
    ‘To the horses!’
    ‘What about Javier?’
    ‘Later!’
    Then rapid footfalls sounded, receding into the darkness, followed by the sounds of around ten men mounting up.
    ‘We going after ’em?’ Barney asked, then ducked as a stray bullet tore into the ground a few feet to his