“So watcha waitin’ for? Shoot him.”

“With what? I’m outta clips.”

“Of all the dumb—”

Corey moved forward, his arms pumping as he fought against the downward pull of the bog. There were moments when he couldn’t feel anything solid under his feet, but he knew that if he kept working his arms and wriggling his legs, he could keep his head above the surface. You’re getting tired, though, he told himself. You’re getting very tired—

And then he reached the rock. He got behind it, climbed onto it where it offered a ledge, and crouched there, breathing hard.

Bullets were hitting the rock and ricocheting. He waited a few minutes and then decided it was time for some counterpunching. Above his head there was a gap in the rock. He raised himself up just a little and looked through the gap and saw the five of them on the other side of the bog.

It had stopped raining. There was moonlight now, and he could see them clearly.

They were set up for him, standing close together. Corey thought, it’s almost a pity, it’s strictly slaughterhouse, they’re just waiting to get chopped down.

His eyes narrowed and measured the distance. He raised his right arm and started to take aim. Just then something occurred to him. He didn’t have the gun.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

You goofer. You butter-fingered, wrong-way artist. If they hand out awards for lousing things up, you’re a cinch to get first prize. And don’t gimme no excuses, either. Don’t tell me you had other things to think about. Don’t tell me you only got two hands and that’s why you hadda let go of the gun. You clown; you can’t remember letting go of the gun. It just slipped away from your fingers and now it’s down there somewhere at the bottom of the pool and you can forget about it. But jim I swear you really irk me sometimes.

He shook his head slowly, crouching low again. Bullets were hitting the rock and bouncing off, others whizzed through the gap where he’d shown his face.

Then suddenly the firing stopped, as though someone had given them an order to stop firing. He waited a minute, but there was no further firing. So now they’re getting clever, he thought. Now it’s strategy and they’ll try a flank maneuver. They know they can’t get you with frontal shooting and they’ll hafta figure some way of crossing the pool. They do that, they’ll be coming in from the left flank or the right flank or both flanks and it’s the end of the line. You know, it’s almost enough to give a man the blues.