Sudden--Strikes Back (A Sudden Western #1) by Frederick H. Christian Read Free Book Online

down.’
    His
companion looked at him for a moment, then asked mischievously, ‘Yu
shore yu can manage her, ol’ feller?’
    Green
grinned. ‘Well, without my walkin’ stick, she looks a mite
difficult, but I’ll give ’er a whirl.’
    ‘ I could allus lower yu down on a rope. If I had a
rope.’
    ‘ I’d ruther jump an’ do her quick,’ replied Sudden. Together
the two men made their way carefully down the none too distinct
path, Sudden in the lead. It was treacherous going. The face of the
cliff was sun-dry and brittle, and the ever-present wind tugged at
their bodies on the exposed corners and juts of the winding track.
They were about half-way down when Dave, prattling away behind
Sudden, turned his heel upon a small stone, and with a cry of
amazement mixed with fear, found himself plummeting downwards off
the path. By sheer luck, he managed to twist his body in mid-air,
and grasp one of the stunted briars clinging for sustenance to the
bare face of the cliff. The wicked spikes tore his hands, face, and
body cruelly, but he gritted his teeth and hung on as Green, lying
Hat on the path above, leaned over the edge and called his
name.
    ‘ Dave—Dave, yu all right?’
    ‘ No … yu idiut. I’m dead as a doornail.’ Dave strove to keep
his voice level, but a cold sweat broke out of every pore on his
body as the small tree lurched slightly. Its meager roots,
unaccustomed to this strange extra weight, were beginning to pull
slowly from their precarious grasp in the crevices of the rock.
Risking another movement, Dave shifted his body slightly. He could
see Green’s anxious face about ten feet above. Sudden meanwhile had
been thinking rapidly.
    ‘ Can yu get yore gun belt an’ pants belt off without movin’ too
much?’ he called down.
    ‘ Expect so,’ was the exasperated reply. ‘Though I’d as lief
not.’
    ‘ Take ’em off, buckle ’em together, an’ don’t argue,’ snapped
Sudden. ‘I’m gonna link my belts together an’ lower ’em to yu. Try
to buckle yore belt to mine.’
    Divining
his friend’s plan to make an improvised rope, Dave began to
unbuckle his belts. Every movement he made was slow and deliberate,
but even so the bush swayed dangerously as he moved. His fingers
were slippery with sweat, but eventually he was ready. Green,
dangling head and shoulders over the precipice, lowered his
connected belts down towards Dave. Dave slowly stretched his hand
upwards, his fingers extended. The belts were just out of reach. He
moved just slightly, and a thin trickle of earth slithered down
past his head as the bush again lurched. ‘She’s no use, Jim,’ he
called, hoarsely. ‘Every time I move, this durned tree moves
too.’
    Without
another word, Green pulled himself back on to the path. In a moment
he had slipped off his boots, and in another, was lowering his body
downwards off the path and on to the face of the cliff, his feet
probing for footholds in the rock.
    ‘ Jim, for Godsakes don’t try it!’ cried Dave.
    Sudden
did not answer. His whole attention was riveted on the exploring
toes and lingers which held him, spread-eagled, on the cliff face.
Once he looked down, and the sheer drop below brought a clammy
sweat to his forehead. Still lower he inched, and lower, until he
was a few feet above Dave’s head. Holding on to a small outcropping
of rock with one hand, he extended the linked belts, which he had
been carrying gripped in his teeth, down to Dave, who fastened them
in a few moments to his own and carefully lifted them upwards until
Sudden could reach them. Sudden then transferred the buckle to his
teeth again, and began the far more difficult task of retracing his
descent. Inch by agonizing inch he moved, crabwise, his fingers
torn and bloody from the needle-sharp rocks, his socks torn to
shreds on his gory feet. Dave watched him as he slowly climbed,
sweat staining the blue shirt as the powerful muscles coiled and
bunched beneath it. It seemed like an eternity before