"
We didn't move a minute too soon. Half a dozen shots broke out from the
spot where the light of the lantern had been suddenly quenched, and we
fired twice and shifted ground the moment we pulled the triggers.
But the opposition guessed the direction of our sidestep. A bullet
lifted my hat into the darkness, and, as I scrambled away, a hand
touched my thigh and was immediately taken away.
I felt Holman's body on the other side, and then, clubbing the big Colt,
I drove it down through the darkness at a point that my imagination
suggested would be the most likely place to find the head of the
stranger whose hand touched my thigh. The blow missed, and as I made a
kangaroo-like jump sideways, a spurt of flame blazed out within a yard
of my face.
I fired immediately, and the soft _plop_ of a body settling into the dry
dust upon the floor convinced me that I had settled one of our enemies.
For about ten minutes after that there was no more firing. My skin, more
than my ears, brought to my brain the information that there were others
somewhere in the thick darkness, but the little air tremors that came to
me were so faint that it was impossible to tell in which direction they
were.
Pages:
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183