Evil Breed (The Lawmen Western) by J.B. Dancer

Author:J.B. Dancer [Dancer, J.B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western, action hero, westerns, Wild West, Gunfighters, rontier Fiction
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2023-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

THE STORM MADE Fisher’s approach both easier and more difficult. A hundred yards away from the spot where he had seen the group of men, he got down from his horse and looped the end of rein tightly over a branch. The way forward on foot was increasingly slippery; once he dipped down to the ground, his outspread left hand holding his body up. The earth was already a moving, watery thing.

Then voices began to drift in and out of the wind.

Fisher made out the shape of another tree and headed towards it.

“ … to be more of a fool …”

“T’ain’t my fault … damned Anders … come to a head.”

“What the hell … pay you for, Tadsco?”

“That ain’t … things change an’ …”

There were four men there. The man they called Tadsco, the one who he had seen outlined clearly from across the canyon, and three others. But only Tadsco and one of the other men were doing any talking as far as Fisher could make out.

He knew who Tadsco was. He and McGarry had talked to him earlier about what had happened on the train. Fisher hadn’t thought that Tadsco was much of a lawman for all that was going on around him, but there had been something about him that he had liked. He had seen in the swelling beer gut and the frank way of talking a kind of integrity.

Not for the first time in recent weeks, Fisher realized that his judgements were almost certainly at fault. He wondered what impression McGarry had got of the man; whether it had been more accurate than his own.

Tadsco was shouting into the face of the storm and it was not entirely to make himself heard. He was angry—and more than that. Fisher realized from the words that were blown back towards him that he was also frightened.

“All I’m sayin’ is … warning … got to change …”

“ … nothin’ changin’ … my word for that.”

Fisher took half a pace closer and as his boot pushed down on to the streaming ground, there was a double crack of gunfire and a twin flash of light.

No lightning this.

Fisher flattened himself back against the tree and froze. The shape which had his back towards him, the shape that was Marshal Tadsco, flapped the sleeves of the slicker like some huge bird. Then fell forwards and was lost to sight.

The shots had come from either side of the other man who had been talking. Their guns must have been out and ready, waiting for the signal to cut the marshal down.

For moments there was nothing but the sizzle of rain and the fidgety movement of horses’ hooves. Fisher did not think they had seen him, their attention fixed on the man they had shot.

Then they started to move away. Fisher knew there was nothing that he could do. It would be senseless to take the three of them on in that darkness and in those conditions. It would not be possible to follow them.

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.