Ralph Compton Slaughter Canyon (9781101559499) by Compton Ralph; West Joseph A

Author:Compton, Ralph; West, Joseph A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA
Published: 2011-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

Mad Dog took a swig of rum, stepped out of his shoes, then walked into the middle of the deck, swinging his cutlass, grinning.

Immediately a sailor ran out with a bucket and sprinkled sand between him and Battles.

“When his blood starts a-gushin’, I don’t want ye to slip on the deck, Cap’n,” he said.

Mad Dog nodded, but said nothing. All his attention was now focused on Battles.

The marshal stepped toward him, holding his cutlass low, the tip pointed upward.

Mad Dog feinted a thrust that Battles tried to defend, but, like the flickering tongue of a snake, the man’s blade withdrew and then swung in an arc, the razor-sharp blade slicing into the right side of Battles’s face.

Donovan stepped back, threw his sword point into the deck, where the blade stood swaying, and reached out his hand. A sailor gave him the grog pot and he drank deeply.

He looked across at Battles. “Ol’ Cap’n Silas Higgs teached me that move,” he said. “Did you enjoy it?”

A seaman laughed. “He was a devil, was ol’ Silas.”

“That he was,” Mad Dog said. “An’ right now him and my own sweet pa are watching us from hell, lay to that.”

Battles tasted the blood in his mouth, and when he touched his cheek, his hand came away scarlet and wet.

Anger flared in him and he charged Donovan, his cutlass raised for a killing, downward slash.

Without seeming to hurry, Mad Dog passed his mug to a seaman, plucked up his sword, and parried Battles’s blow, steel clashing against steel.

Again, Donovan recovered expertly and swung his cutlass in a flashing arc, the blade slamming into Battles’s left side, cutting deep.

Gasping from shock and pain, Battles staggered a step back and dropped his guard.

This time Mad Dog went after him.

The man was a master swordsman. In his hand the cutlass’s slow, clumsy blade was as quick and nimble as a rapier.

He pranced around on his bare feet like a dancer, and methodically cut Matt Battles to pieces. Donovan took his time, drawing out Battles’s death, but the marshal soon looked like a man who’d fallen into a vat of crimson dye, blood streaming from cuts to his head, face, and upper body.

Finally Mad Dog stepped back, drained his grog to the last drop, and tossed the pewter pot away.

His sword grasped under his armpit, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Now I’ll end it and put you out of your misery, matey,” he said. “Says you, that’s real civil of the cap’n, because I’m all cut to collops. Says I, well, I’ve had my fun and after I kill you I’ll have another pot o’ grog and drink it while you’re feeding the sharks.”

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.