Manly Wade Wellman - Judge Pursuivant 01 by The Hairy Ones Shall Dance (v1.1) Read Free Book Online Page A

considerably
taller than I. Upper limbs - I hesitate at calling them arms - sparred
questingly at me.
                   I moved a stride backward, but kept my face to
the enemy.
                   "You killed Gird!" I accused it, in
a voice steady enough but rather strained and shrill. "Come on and kill
me! I promise you a damned hard bargain of it."
                   The creature shrank away in turn, as though it
understood the
                   words and was
momentarily daunted by them. Its head, which I could not make out, sank low
before those crooked shoulders and swayed rhythmically like the head of a snake
before striking. The rush was coming, and I knew it.
                   "Come on!" I dared it again.
"What are you waiting for? I'm not chained down, like Gird. I'll give you
a devil of a fight."
                   I had my fists up and I feinted, boxerwise,
with a little weaving jerk of the knees. The blot of blackness started
violently, ripped out a snarl from somewhere inside it, and sprang at me.
                   I had an impression of paws flung out and a
head twisted sidewise, with long teeth bared to snap at my throat. Probably it
meant to clutch my shoulders with its fingers - it had them, I had felt them on
my knee at the seance. But I had planned my own campaign in those tense
seconds. I slid my left foot forward as the enemy lunged, and my left fist
drove for the muzzle. My knuckles barked against the huge, inhuman teeth, and I
brought over a roundabout right, with shoulder and hip driving in back of it.
The head, slanted as it was, received this right fist high on the brow. I felt
the impact of solid bone, and the body floundered away to my left. I broke
ground right, turned and raised my hands as before.
                   "Want any more of the same?" I
taunted it, as I would a human antagonist after scoring.
                   The failure of its attack had been only
temporary. My blows had set it ofi' balance, but could hardly have been
decisive. I heard a coughing snort, as though the thing's muzzle was bruised,
and it quartered around toward me once more. Without warning and with amazing
speed it rushed.
                   I had no time to set myself now. I did try to
leap backward, but I was not quick enough. It had me, gripping the lapels of my
coat and driving me down and over with its flying weight. I felt the wet ground
spin under my heels, and then it came flying up
against my shoulders. Instinctively I had clutched upward at a throat with my
right hand, clutched a handful of skin, loose and rankly shaggy. My left, also
by instinct, flew backward to break my fall. It closed on something hard, round
and smooth.
                   The rank odor that I had known at the seance
was falling around me like a blanket, and the clashing white teeth shoved
nearer, nearer. But the rock in my left hand spelled sudden hope. Without
trying to roll out from under, I smote with that rock. My clutch on the hairy
throat helped me to judge accurately where the head would be. A moment later,
and the struggling bulk above me went limp under the impact. Shoving it aside,
I scrambled free and gained my feet once more.
                   The monster lay motionless where I had thrust
it from me. Every nerve a-tingle, I stooped. My hand poised the rock for
another smashing blow, but there was no sign of fight from the fallen shape. I
could hear only a gusty breathing, as of something in stunned pain.
                   "Lie right where you are, you murdering
brute," I cautioned it, my voice ringing exultant as I realized I had won.
"If you move ,. I'll smash your skull in."
                   My right hand groped in my pocket for a match,
struck it on the back of my leg. I bent still closer for a clear look at my
enemy.
                   Had the thing been so hairy? Now, as I