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

gazed,
it seemed only sparsely furred. The ears, too, were blunter than I thought, and
the muzzle not so -
                   Why, it was half human! Even as I watched, it
was becoming more human still, a sprawled human figure! And, as the fur seemed
to vanish in patches, was it clothing I saw, as though through the rents in a
bearskin overcoat?
                   My senses churned in my own head. The fear
that had ridden me all night became suddenly unreasoning. I fled as before,
this time without a thought of where I was going or what I would do. The
forbidden grove, lately so welcome as a refuge, swarmed with evil. I reached
the edge of the clearing, glanced back once. The thing I had stricken down was
beginning to stir, to get up. I ran from it as from a devil.
                   Somehow I had come to the stream again, or to
another like it. The current moved more swiftly at this point, with a
noticeable murmur. As I tried to spring across I landed short, and gasped in
sudden pain, for the water was scalding hot. Of such are the waters of hell . .
.
                   I cannot remember my flight through that
steaming swamp that might have been a corner of Satan's own park. Somewhere
along the way I found a tough, fleshy stem, small enough to rend from its
rooting and wield as a club. With it in my hand I paused, with a rather foolish
desire to return along my line of retreat for another and decisive encounter
with the shaggy being. But what if it would foresee my coming and lie in wait?
I knew how swiftly it could spring, how strong was its grasp .
Once at close quarters, my club would be useless, and those teeth might find
their objective. I cast aside the impulse, that had welled from I know not what
primitive core of me, and hurried on.
                   Evergreens were before me on a sudden, and
through them filtered a blast of cold air. The edge of the grove, and beyond it
the snow and the open sky, perhaps a resumption of the hunt by the mob; but
capture and death at their hands would be clean and welcome compared to -
                   Feet squelched in the dampness behind me.
                   I pivoted with a hysterical oath, and swung up
my club in readiness to strike. The great dark outline that had come upon me
took one step closer, then paused. I sprang at it,
struck and missed as it dodged to one side.
                   "All right then, let's have it out,"
I managed to blurt, though my voice was drying up in my throat. "Come on,
show your face."
                   "I'm not here to fight you," a
good-natured voice assured me. "Why, I seldom even argue, except with
proven friends."
                   I relaxed a trifle, but did not lower my club.
"Who are you?"
                   "Judge Keith Pursuivant," was the
level response, as though I had not just finished trying to kill him. "You
must be the young man they're so anxious to hang, back in town. Is that
right?"
                   I made no answer.
                   "Silence makes admission," the
stranger said. "Well, come along to my house. This grove is between it and town, and nobody will bother us for the night, at
least."

             VIII
     
                  ''A trick that almost killed
you."
                   When I stepped into the open with Judge Keith
Pursuivant, the snow had ceased and a full moon glared through a rip in the
clouds, making diamond dust of the sugary drifts. By its light I saw my
companion with some degree of plainness - a man of great height and girth, with
a wide black hat and a voluminous gray ulster. His face was as round as the
moon itself, at least as shiny, and much warmer to look at. A broad bulbous
nose and broad bulbous eyes beamed at me, while under a drooping blond mustache
a smile seemed to be lurking. Apparently he considered the situation a pleasant
one.