Read Online Shoot Angel! by Frederick H. Christian - Free Book Online

at
a time. Once he had Sherman and Angel out of the picture he could
sit back and decide on his next move. One thing he did know.
Eventually he would leave this place. He’d come to hate Liberty. It
was a dirty little town in the middle of nowhere and he’d had his
fill. It had served his purpose over the last few years. His
set-up, in partnership with Sherman, had brought in a steady flow
of money. Nothing spectacular but it had built up slowly. The
unexpected bonus of seventy-five thousand dollars from the man
called Harry Culp had been like a gift from the gods. With that
kind of money Amos Cranford could go far. And he intended doing
so.
    Throughout the rest of the day
Cranford followed his usual routine. He took his midday walk to
town and ate lunch. Later he visited a number of
Liberty ’s
businessmen, discussing various legal matters. Halfway through the
afternoon he stopped off at the barbershop and had a trim and a
shave. He only saw Phil Sherman once during the day. The sheriff
was crossing the street as Cranford came out of a store. Sherman
almost gave himself away but managed to control his jangled nerves
and mutter a quick response to Cranford’s hearty
greeting.
    It was a couple of minutes off
five o ’clock
when a dust-lathered rider reined in before the judge’s house.
Cranford had returned only a while before. He spotted the rider
through the parlor window and went quickly to open the front door.
He had already recognized the rider as one of the guards from
Trench’s camp.
    ‘ What’s wrong?’ Cranford asked.
    ‘ We
got trouble out at the camp,’ the rider told him. ‘On the way to
the construction camp this morning three prisoners made a
break.’
    A sense of unease washed over Cranford. Even
as he asked the next question he was certain of the answer.
    ‘ Who
were they?’
    ‘ Feller called Birdy. Hard case named Capucci. And the new
one who came in yesterday. Angel!’
    Cranford almost chuckled out loud. Of all the
men at the camp Angel had to be the one to escape. You had to hand
it to the man, Cranford thought. He was no fool.
    ‘ How’s
Trench handling it?’
    ‘ He’s
got the camp locked up tight. Every man he can spare is out looking
for those three.’ The rider grinned through the dusty mask caking
his face. ‘Hell, Trench is even out himself! I reckon we’ll get ’em
’fore they get far, Judge. They’re on foot and they don’t have a
gun between the three of ’em!’
    Cranford considered the facts
and came to the conclusion that the lack of facilities
weren ’t
going to deter Angel. The man would improvise every step of the way
and if the opportunity arose he would furnish himself with whatever
he needed to complete his task.
    Whether on foot or horseback, armed with a
gun or his bare hands, the man named Angel would also stick rigidly
to his predetermined line of travel, which would bring him
ultimately to Liberty.
    To that end, Cranford decided, he would have
to prepare himself. One way or another, in the not too distant
future, Liberty was going to have a rude awakening.

Chapter Nine
    ‘ I
can’t see what you’re going to gain in Liberty,’ Birdy complained.
He stared at Angel’s tight-lipped expression and knew he wasn’t
going to get any kind of answer. The little man had learned quickly
in the short time he’d been with Angel that if the younger man
wasn’t in a mind to discuss something there was no future in
pursuing the subject. He grumbled darkly to himself, making sure
that his words were inaudible.
    They were moving along a sandy
slope. High rock faces soared jaggedly skywards all around them. The
terrain they were crossing seemed endless. A tortured expanse of
sun-bleached stone and dust, grotesque cactus lurching starkly out
of the dry earth. Pale tendrils of dust followed in their wake as
they stumbled wearily across hard earth, clambered over rocks that
were so hot from the sun that the briefest contact burned the flesh
of their hands.
    For Birdy