The Gallows Gang by I. J. Parnham Read Free Book Online Page B

catching his breath. Only when he felt composed enough to move and didn’t feel as if he’d vomit again, did he cautiously look around.
    It was getting light, the sides of the canyon being visible as brooding slabs of rock that made his neck ache and his head swim before his gaze reached the top.
    He lowered his eyes and saw that he was lying beside the river. The Preacher was sitting beside him with his legs drawn up to his chin, looking at the water.
    The last thing Nathaniel remembered was falling from the cage and tumbling down into the canyon. The water had been rushing up to meet him, but after that he could recall events in only scrappy, feverish bursts as if he was seeing them by lightning flashes.
    The bone-rattling blow of hitting the river, the downwards rush through the cold water, more downward motion, fighting for air, a temporary emergence above water before the river reclaimed him….
    Then there were other disjointed memories of Bible quotations and of a strong arm that wrapped itself around his chest and tugged.
    He twisted and raised himself on to his elbows so that he could look up at The Preacher. Then he summed up those events in one simple declaration.
    ‘You saved my life,’ he said.
    Admittedly with them being chained together The Preacher had had no choice but to save his life, assuming, that is, that he had wanted to live. Previously his behaviour had been so bizarre and uninterested in what was happening to him that Nathaniel wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d let the river take them both away.
    He waited for The Preacher to acknowledge him but that individual continued to watch the water roilby, so Nathaniel stretched himself, finding that, aside from the bruises that announced their presence, he had survived the fall intact.
    Feeling stronger now, he rolled himself round to adopt the same posture as The Preacher had, sitting beside him. There, he craned his neck, but he couldn’t see the point at which they’d gone over the edge, nor the cage. So he couldn’t tell whether they were immediately below that point, or whether they’d drifted downriver.
    One thing was certain to him though. If he wanted to remain free for any length of time he couldn’t assume that nobody would come down into the canyon to check whether anyone in the cage had survived the fall. They had to get moving.
    With the shared manacles around his wrists and ankles that meant he was going nowhere unless he found a way to communicate and agree on a course of action with The Preacher.
    He took a deep breath and put on a conversational voice, as if the last few traumatic hours hadn’t happened and they were just two men enjoying a pleasant chat beside the river.
    ‘I’m grateful to you for what you did,’ he said.
    Nathaniel gave him a minute to reply, but The Preacher ignored him.
    ‘Is there anything you want from me in return?’
    He waited, but again The Preacher ignored him.
    ‘Do you have a name other than The Preacher?’ he tried, without success.
    ‘Then my name is Nathaniel McBain.’
    Nathaniel was considering what his next comment should be when The Preacher swung his gaze down to consider him, this being the first time Nathaniel could remember him responding to an invitation to speak.
    ‘When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching,’ The Preacher said, ‘he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false”. John one, verse forty-seven.’
    Nathaniel judged this a good thing, both for the fact that The Preacher had spoken to him and for what he had said.
    ‘I believe there is nothing false about me.’ Nathaniel paused, giving The Preacher a chance to speak, but the man didn’t take up the offer. ‘I’d aimed to live a good life when I got out, but then I got wrongly accused of killing Ramsey Carr and ended up in that cage bound for the gallows.’
    This didn’t interest The Preacher and the small amount of curiosity in his eyes faded away as he returned to looking at the