Universe Twister - Keith Laumer [120]
"Wait!" Lafayette cried as the noose dropped around his neck. "Can't we settle this like gentlemen?"
A sudden silence fell. The sergeant was looking at the captain, who was frowning blackly at O'Leary.
"You demand the treatment accorded a gentleman? On what grounds?"
"I'm Sir Lafayette O'Leary, a—a charter member of the National Geographic Society!"
"Looks like he's got something, Cap," the sergeant said. "With credentials like them, you can't hardly accord the guy short shrift."
"He's right," Lafayette said hastily. "I'm sure that on sober reflection you can see it wouldn't look at all well if you lynched me."
"'Tis a parlous waste of time," the captain growled. "But—very well. Remove the rope."
"Well, I'm glad we're all going to be friends," Lafayette said. "Now, I—"
"Out pistols!"
"Wha—what are you going to do with those?" Lafayette inquired as the troopers unlimbered foot-long horse pistols, busied themselves with flint and priming.
"Take up your stance against yon tree, sir knight," the captain barked. "And be quick about it. We haven't got all night!"
"Y-you mean this tree?" Lafayette half-stumbled over gnarly roots. "Why? What . . .?"
"Ready, men! Aim!"
"Stop!" O'Leary called in a cracking voice. "You can't shoot me!"
"You demanded a gentleman's death, did you not? Aim—"
"But—you're not going to fire from that range?" Lafayette protested. "I thought you fellows were marksmen!"
"We took first place in the police tournament last June," the sergeant stated.
"Why don't I just move back a little farther?" Lafayette suggested. "Give you a chance to show your skill." He backed ten feet, bumped another tree.
"Ready!" the captain called. "Aim—"
"Still too close," Lafayette called, wagging a finger. "Let's make it a real challenge." He hastily scrambled back an additional four yards.
"That's far enough!" the captain bellowed. "Stand and receive your fate, sirrah!" He brandished his saber. "Ready! Aim!" As the officer's lips formed the final word, there was a sudden, shrill yowl from the dense brush behind him. All eyes snapped in the direction from which the nerve-shredding sound had come.
"Night cat!" a man blurted. Without waiting for a glimpse of the creature, Lafayette bounded sideways, dived behind the tree, scrambled to his feet, and pelted full speed into the forest, while shouts rang and guns boomed and lead balls screamed through the underbrush around him.
The moon was out, shining whitely on the split-log front of a small cabin situated in the center of a hollow ringed in by giant trees. Lafayette lay on his stomach under a bramble bush, aching all over from a combination of hangover, fatigue, and contusions. It had been thirty minutes since the last halloo had sounded from the troops beating the brush for him, twenty since he had topped the rim of the bowl and seen the dim-lit windows of the hut below. In that time nothing had stirred there, no sound had broken the stillness. And nothing, Lafayette added, had interfered with the development of a classic case of chilblains. The temperature had dropped steadily as the night wore on; now ice crystals glittered on the leaves. Lafayette blew on his hands and stared at the lighted window of the tiny dwelling below.
"She has to be down there," he assured himself. "Where else could she be, in this wilderness?" Of course, he continued the line of thought, whoever kidnapped her is probably there too, waiting with loaded pistols to see if anyone's following . . .
"On the other hand, if I stay here I'll freeze," O'Leary countered decisively. He tottered to his feet, beat his stiffening arms across his chest, eliciting a hacking cough, then began to make his way cautiously down the shadowy slope. At a distance he circled the house, pausing at intervals, alert for sounds of approaching horsemen or awakening householders; but the silence remained unbroken. The flowered curtains at the small windows blocked his view of the interior.
Lafayette slipped up close to the narrow back door, flanked by a pile of split wood and a rain barrel; he put an ear against