Birds of Prey - Smith Wilbur (версия книг TXT) 📗

Hal hesitated, still glaring back at the swiftly approaching rider. Then his eyes flicked to the face of the girl in the carriage. Sukeena stared at him, her huge dark eyes full of entreaty. "You are sorely wounded. Look at your leg." She leaned over the door of the carriage, so that she was very close, and spoke so softly that he could only just make out the words above the din of men and wheels and horses. "Stay with us, Gundwane."

He glanced down at the blood and pale lymph oozing from the deep puncture wounds. While he wavered Big Daniel ran back and jumped up onto the step of the carriage.

"I'll take care of this one," he said, and lifted the loaded musket from Althuda's hands. Holding it, he dropped from the step into the dirt of the road and stood there checking the burning matchlock and the priming in the pan. He took his time as the carriage trotted away from him and Colonel Schreuder galloped down on him.

Despite all their pleas and warnings Hal started back to intervene. "Daniel, don't kill the fool." He wanted to explain that he and Schreuder had a destiny to work out together. It was a matter of chivalric honour in which no other should come between them, but there was no time to give voice to such a romantic notion.

Schreuder galloped to within earshot and stood in his stirrups. "Katinka!" he shouted. "Have no fear, I am come to save you, my darling. I will never let these villains take. you."

He plucked the bell-muzzled pistol from his sash and held the matchlock in the wind so that the smouldering match flared. Then he lay flat along his horse's neck with his pistol arm outstretched. "Out of my way, oaf! "he roared at Daniel, and fired. His right arm was thrown high by the discharge and a wreath of blue smoke swirled around his head, but the ball flew wide, hitting the earth a foot from Daniel's bare right leg, showering him with gravel.

Schreuder threw aside the pistol and drew the Neptune sword from its scabbard at his side. The gold inlay on the blade glinted as he wielded it. "I'll cleave your skull to the teeth!" Schreuder roared, and raised the blade high. Daniel dropped on one knee and let the Colonel's horse come on the last few strides.

Too close, Hal thought. Much too close. If the musket misfires Danny is a dead man. But Daniel held his aim steadily and snapped the lock. For an instant Hal thought his worst fear had been realized but then, with a sharp report, a spurt of flame and silver smoke, the musket discharged.

Perhaps Daniel had heeded Hal's shout, or perhaps the horse was a bigger and surer target than the rider upon its back, but he had aimed into the animal's wide, sweat drenched chest and the heavy lead ball for once flew true. At full charge Schreuder's steed collapsed under him. He was thrown over its head, slamming face and shoulder into the ground.

The horse struggled and kicked, lying on its back, thrashing its head from side to side while its heart-blood pumped from the wound in its chest. Then its head fell back to earth with a thump and, with one last snorting breath, it lay still.

Schreuder lay motionless on the sun-baked road, and Hal felt a moment's fear that his neck was broken. He almost ran back to aid him, but Schreuder made a few disjointed movements, and Hal paused. The carriage was drawing away swiftly, and the others were shouting to him, "Come back, Gundwane!" "Leave the bastard, Sir Henry."

Daniel sprang up, grabbed Hal's arm. "He ain't dead, but we soon will be if we lie becalmed here much longer," and dragged him away.

For the first few steps Hal resisted and tried to shake off Daniel's hand. "It can't end like this. Don't you understand, Danny?"

"I understand well enough," Big Daniel grunted, and at that Schreuder sat up groggily in the middle of the road. The gravel had torn the skin off one side of his face, but he was trying to get to his feet, lurching and falling, then trying again.

"He's all right," said Hal, with a relief that almost surprised him, and allowed Daniel to pull him away.

"Aye!" said Daniel, as they caught up with the carriage. "He's right enough to crop your acorns for you when next you meet. We'll not be rid of that one so easily."

Aboli braked the carriage to allow them to catch up, and Hal grabbed the bridle of the leading horse and allowed it to lift him off his feet. He looked back to see Schreuder on his feet in the middle of the road, dusty, and bleeding. He staggered after the carriage like a man with a bottle of cheap gin in his belly, still brandishing the sword.

They pulled away from him at a brisk trot and Schreuder gave up the attempt to overhaul the departing carriage, instead screamed abuse after it. "By God, Henry Courtney, I'm coming after you, even if I have to follow you to the very gates of hell. I have you in my eye, sir, I have you in my heart."

"When you come, bring with you that sword you stole from me," Hal shouted back. "I'll spit you with it like a sucking pig for the devil to roast." His seamen hooted with laughter and gave the colonel an assortment of obscene farewell gestures.

"Katinka! My darling!" Schreuder changed his tone. "Do not despair. I will rescue you. I swear it on my father's grave. I love you with my very life."

Throughout all the shouting and the musket fire, van de Velde had been crouching on the floor of the carriage but now he heaved himself back onto the seat and glared at the battered figure in the road. "Is he raving mad? How dare he address my wife in such odious terms?" He rounded on Katinka with a red face and wobbling jowls. "Mevrouw, I trust you have given the dolt of a soldier no cause for such licence."

"I assure you, Mijnheer, his language and address come as more of a shock to me than they do to you. I take great offence, and I implore you to take him seriously to task at the first opportunity," replied Katinka, clinging to the door of the carriage with one hand and to her bonnet with the other.

"I will do better than that, Mevrouw. He will be on the next ship back to Amsterdam. I cannot abide with such impertinence. Moreover, he is responsible for the predicament we are now in. As commander of the castle, the prisoners are his responsibility. Their escape is due to his incompetence and the dereliction of his duty. The Bastard has no right to speak to you in such a fashion."