The Gallows Gang Read Online Free PDF Page B

said, grinning, ‘who gets to see you die.’
    Then he ran back to the group, gibbering with delight.
    ‘Now move on out,’ Javier said with an overhead gesture. ‘We need to be as far away as possible by the time that blast lights up Devil’s Canyon.’
    Nathaniel ignored the prisoners’ departure as he strained, but the chain that secured his hand to The Preacher’s was short and he could move himself only a few feet nearer to the fizzing dynamite. His straining tugged The Preacher back and forth, but his efforts didn’t rouse him or stop his steady murmuring .
    ‘We have to do something,’ Nathaniel shouted at him, ‘or the blast will blow us both to pieces in about two minutes.’
    The Preacher’s only response was to clutch his hands more tightly together and raise his voice to a strident tone.
    ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,’ he intoned, ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Matthew five, verse ten.’

CHAPTER 5
    The last rider in Kurt’s group was 200 yards ahead. Occasionally Shackleton caught sight of Pablo Rodriguez’s gang and he judged that Kurt was gaining on him.
    He’d galloped on for another half-mile when gunfire blasted ahead, at first sporadically, but then more determinedly and getting closer. Shackleton wondered whether Pablo had doubled back but on following the riders into a pass he saw that Pablo had decided to make a stand.
    His men were scurrying into hiding on one side of the pass while Kurt and his men were dismounting to take up positions on the other side.
    They were already trading gunfire and although they’d started with evenly matched numbers the bodies of three men showed that Kurt had made progress in decimating Pablo’s group.
    By the time Shackleton’s group had dismounted, Kurt had accounted for one more.
    ‘How many are we facing?’ Shackleton asked whenhe scurried into cover beside him.
    ‘Eight tried to escape, and we’ve already halved that number.’ Kurt licked his lips. ‘This pass is where Pablo Rodriguez breathes his last.’
    Shackleton cast his mind back to the riders he’d seen leaving and he judged that Kurt’s total was right, but when he looked at Elwood, he received a shake of the head.
    ‘There was one more than that,’ Elwood said.
    Kurt dismissed his opinion with a wave of the hand, then settled down to organizing his men to take up the best positions and to lay down gunfire aimed at the opposite side of the pass.
    For the next ten minutes they chose their moments to bob up from behind their covering boulders and trade gunfire, but with only starlight available both groups had to pick their targets using merely sound. So neither side threatened the other with the slugs that whined into the rocks around them, frequently landing ten or more yards away.
    With everyone getting increasingly exasperated, Barney whispered an idea to Shackleton. Without consulting Kurt, Shackleton agreed.
    Two minutes later Barney and Elwood were ready. They slipped out into the pass and crawled forward for twenty yards, then lit the brands they’d made. They hurled them across the pass, getting them as close to Pablo’s position as possible, before scurrying back into hiding.
    The balls of light hurtled through the night sky. When they’d crashed to the ground in a shower ofsparks they bathed the other side of the pass in stark light, leaving their side in relative darkness.
    Consequently, the first man to rise and fire got blasted in the chest from two different directions, sending him tumbling forward. Afterwards, the others had the sense to stay down and fire off only the occasional speculative shot, but each time they did, gunfire cannoned around their positions, keeping them pinned down.
    ‘Pablo Rodriguez ain’t as ornery as everyone says,’ Kurt said happily, glancing at Shackleton. ‘Even you managed to take on two of his men.’
    Shackleton wondered if he were being insulted, but when Elwood got his attention he