The Last Days by Joel C. Rosenberg

Author:Joel C. Rosenberg
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-03-06T03:00:00+00:00

Moments later, the turnkeys burst into the room. Before them they saw the governor’s motionless body, slumped on his desk, surrounded by a thick pool of his own blood. The man’s head, as usual, was hidden under his black hat. Behind him, the window was open. Pyke was nowhere to be seen. When one of the turnkeys raced to the window and looked down into the yard beneath him, he saw what he thought to be Pyke’s unmoving body, splattered against the hard ground.

One of the turnkeys shouted, ‘Prisoner escaped.’

The other, by the window, yelled, ‘Prisoner fallen. Get someone down there. He looks to be dead.’

Another said, ‘How in God’s name did he do it? We searched him, didn’t we?’

Still another said, ‘I take it the governor’s dead.’

‘I ain’t touching him.’

‘Fetch a doctor.’

Another voice. ‘Get the Ordinary, not a doctor. Too late for that.’

‘Come on. Let’s see whether Pyke’s dead.’

Moments later, alone in the governor’s office, Pyke removed the hat from his head and used it to wipe the governor’s blood from his face and neck. He climbed out on to the narrow window ledge. Holding on to the stone arch that framed the window, he pulled himself up on to the building’s roof and lay there for a moment, staring up into the dawn skies. In the distance, he could hear the mass of people beginning to gather outside the prison to witness a hanging that would not now take place. Then he was up on his feet and scurrying across the sloping roof. Then he lowered himself on to the wall and traversed the press yard.

Far below, he could see the outline of the governor’s body, and he moved as quickly along the wall as its narrow width would allow. At the end of the wall, he dropped down into the garden of the Royal College of Physicians, as the first of the turnkeys reached the governor’s body.

The last thing Pyke heard the man say was, ‘It’s not him. It isn’t bleedin’ him.’ Then he shouted, ‘Prisoner escaped.’

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.