Longarm and the Secret Assassin by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans [Evans, Tabor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Westerns, Fiction
ISBN: 9780515119824
Google: qVcCAAAACAAJ
Publisher: Jove Books
Published: 1996-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

It was a fine morning and, if Longarm hadn’t been in a big hurry to reach Leadville, he would have taken his time and enjoyed the ride. Splash was a spirited but sensible animal blessed with an easy jog, a soft lope, and a very fast walk, which was always appreciated. Longarm found that he liked Splash much better than Target, although he sort of missed the mule.

The mining road that he followed was empty except for an occasional ore wagon. Longarm passed several of these wagons as he began a steep climb up through heavily wooded country. To his right the mountain dropped off very sharply, and Longarm could see a glistening stream down in the gorge below. Once, he saw the wreckage of a big freight wagon and the bones of what had been its team of horses or mules. That didn’t surprise Longarm because the drop-off was so steep.

He was about eight miles from Leadville and still admiring the views when an ambusher suddenly openedfire. Longarm felt the slug burn across his ribs, and then a second bullet creased his shoulder. Exposed without any nearby cover, he tried to leap from Splash, but the horse spun and sent him tumbling over the mountainside. Longarm attempted to stop his fall, but he was engulfed in a rolling, dust-boiling rock slide that carried him all the way to the bottom of the gorge and even a little way into the rushing stream. Battered, dazed, and bleeding, he lay still and half buried for several moments, trying to collect his wits and decide if he was severely injured or just banged up and bullet-creased in a couple of places.

He could still move his fingers and toes, which was a good sign, but the bad news was that everything except his head was covered with about two feet of rock.

“Damn!” he swore in the thick, choking dust as he struggled to dig himself out from under the blanket of shale that was still sliding across his body.

He finally managed to extract himself before the rock slide really cut loose and buried him alive. The dust was so thick Longarm couldn’t see a thing, but he had no doubt that the ambusher was still up on the road and probably had his finger on the trigger of his rifle waiting for the dust to clear. With that in mind, it seemed imperative to Longarm that he find some cover and get hunkered down for whatever was to happen next.

But dammit, his six-gun was missing! He’d obviously lost it during his long, painful tumble down into this big gorge. Still coughing and choking in the heavy dust cloud, Longarm tied his bandanna around his face and began to crawl down to the stream, where he could hide among the shrubs and trees until he figured out who was out to fry his bacon.

A wild bullet probed the dust, but Longarm didn’t think he was in any danger as he crawled to the water and slipped in behind a big, mossy rock.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.