Read Online Warlock by Dean Koontz - Free Book Online

rolls of bread were placed. Coffee was brewed in eight separate pots, and soon a line had formed to devour the simple but nourishing meal.
        
        Richter brought his mess tin to the place where the Shaker and his step-sons sat and ate with them. “We'll not all be going down and then up,” the officer said. “That overhang is a tough one even for mountaineers, and you three would never make it.”
        
        “My prayers have been answered then,” Mace said. It was not said with any particular humorous note to it
        
        “What magic do you intend to use to get us from here to there, then?” Gregor asked, his mouth full of bread and cheese so that his words were somewhat garbled.
        
        “There you have the educated Shaker-to-be,” Mace said with scorn. “Note his fine diction and his superb manners. But yes, Commander, just how will we get from here to there?”
        
        “I’ll lead a party down, up the other side. I've clambered round greater overhangs than that. We will leave a length of rope here to be tied down, and carry an unreeling coil with us as we cross. Once on the other side, we can attach it. It is but three hundred feet across by hand, which-”
        
        “You can't expect the Shaker, a man his age, to crawl three hundred feet on the slender strand of that rope, supported by just his hands!” Gregor had sprayed some amount of crumbs over his lap in his ejaculation.
        
        “I hardly said that,” Commander Richter said. “I doubt even I would wish to try it. It is not nearly the same as mountaineering, but engages an entire other set of muscles.”
        
        “What then?” Mace asked, interested.
        
        The first man to come across will be the one named Zito Tanisha. He is from the Coedone Gypsy tribes and is inclined to acrobatics of various lands. Indeed, the entire trick we will use was devised by Zito. He will cross hand over hand, for he is used to that. He will tie a second length of rope to the cut end of the first before he leaves, paying that one out as he crosses. When he reaches us, the second rope will be made fast to our end of the first. The ropes are thin, but strong, and the knots will be tight but small. On both sides of the gorge, after the knots have been tied, wax will be melted over them to seal them tighter and to guard against slippage. At that point, we will have a great loop of rope stretched across the canyon. Sergeant Crowler will break loose the anchor piton on this side and slip this end of the loop into a pulley system which men are now putting together. The pulley is built on a small platform, upon which four men will stand as anchor. On the other side of the gorge, we will then do the same with a second, matching pulley that we will take across with us. After that, a man need only grasp the lowest rope with both hands and be whisked across by our team of drawers and the team of pullers over here who will work on the upper rope while we pull on the lower. Perhaps three minutes per man to cross. A great time saver and far less chance of disaster.”
        
        “Quite ingenius!” Mace said in obvious admiration.
        
        “This Zito,” the Shaker said. “He can be trusted?”
        
        “We've used the same device three times before,” Commander Richter said.
        
        That is not what I asked.”
        
        If I can't trust Zito,” Richter said, shrugging wearily, “I can trust no one. He has given me his bloodied kerchief once, and you know what that means among the Coedones.”
        
        “Eternal fidelity,” the Shaker said. “And they have never been known to break such a vow. Well, it is nice to know there is one of your men who is not suspect.”
        
        Richter finished eating and went off to take care of the last of the arrangements. Ten minutes later, he and a party of seven enlisted men had started down this side of the