‘I reckon I could sink my pride,’ Mac said and laughed. I’d sooner be pinched by a cop then fall into Barratt’s hands.’
‘Think it’s safe to smoke?’ Joe asked.
‘Go and sit on the floor if you must smoke,’ I said. ‘I’ll take your place.’
‘You’re a pal, pally. I’m glad I didn’t shoot you.’
‘So am I.’
He lit a cigarette while he sat on the floor.
‘These punks don’t show much initiative, do they?’ Mac said. ‘Maybe they’ve scrammed.’
‘Go out there and find out,’ Joe said. ‘I bet they’re cooking up something.’
I had an idea they were, too. So long as the floor of the valley lay in the moonlight, I could understand them not showing themselves, but, once the light had shifted, they would probably make a rush.
Mary came in with cups of coffee. Joe laced his from a pint flask he hauled out of his pocket
‘Anyone want rum?’ he asked, waving the flask.
Mac helped himself, handed the flask to me, but I shook my head.
‘Just coffee for me.’
‘Fancy your chances getting out of here?’ Joe asked as he sucked up the rum and coffee noisily.
‘I don’t see why not.’
‘Shut up, Joe,’ Mac said curtly. ‘You’re creating despair and depression. No one would miss you if you were shot.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Joe said hotly. ‘My old mother would.’ He got to his feet to cross the room for another cup of coffee. ‘I’ve a flock of judies too. They’d all miss me.’
There was a sudden, steady rattle of gunfire. One of the distant bushes seemed to burst into flame as a Thompson-gun chattered its song of death.
‘Down!’ I bawled, and flung myself flat.
Joe took two lurching steps to the door, turned slowly on his heels and dropped.
No one moved. The Thompson continued to rattle. Slugs whined through the windows, cut across the door, hammered into the opposite wall. Then the Thompson stopped as suddenly as it began.
‘Watch out,’ I said to Mac, and crawled over to Joe. The burst of gunfire had caught him across the chest. It had ripped him open the way you rip open a can with a can opener.
‘Is he dead?’ Mary asked, and by the shake in her voice I knew she was badly shocked.
‘Yeah.’
‘Well, I hope I’ll get out of this so I can tell his Ma,’ Mac said. ‘I bet she’ll hang out flags. She always hated the punk.’
‘Don’t show yourselves in front of the windows and keep down,’ I said, crawling over to where
Mary knelt by one of the windows.
‘You bet,’ Mac said. ‘I thought that son of a bitch was up to something.’
Then the Thompson started grinding again. Slugs zipped through the room.
‘Look out! They’re coming!’ Mac bawled.
I could see figures running into the moonlight. They swerved to right and left, making it impossible to hold the rifle sights on them. Mac brought one down, but the other five got across the floor of the valley and disappeared into the bushes.
‘Not so good,’ I said, ducking down as slugs sent splinters from the window frame. ‘They’re over now. They can get right up to the door without us seeing them.’
‘They can’t get in,’ Mac said, ‘without getting shot up. Where’s Joe’s rum? I feel like another swig.’
He crawled over to Joe, turned him over and fetched out the flask from Joe’s hip pocket. As the Thompson stopped grinding, I raised my rifle and fired three quick shots into the bushes where the gun flashes had been.
There was a sudden movement. A man sprang out, holding the Thompson and went crashing down on his face.
‘Nice shooting,’ Mac said, who had returned to the window ‘Now if any of those rats want that
Tommy they’ll have to come out into the open for it’
Gunfire banged right by us, making us start back Slugs smashed through the door.
‘They’re right outside,’ I whispered to Mary. ‘Go into the other room.’
‘Why?’ She peered at me, her eyes large in her white face.
‘Get in there and don’t ask questions.’
She went, crawling on hands and knees.
‘Got an automatic on you?’ I asked Mac, my lips close to his ear.
He nodded.
‘So’s Joe.’
I crawled over to Joe, found the .38 automatic, pushed down the front of his trousers, and crawled back to Mac.
‘Listen: I’m going up on the roof. The moment I start firing, open the door. With any luck, they won’t see you until it’s too late. You’ve got to shoot quick and you’ve got to hit them. There’re five, remember.’
‘They’ll get you the moment you show on the roof.’
‘I’ll chance it.’
A voice bawled from out of the darkness, ‘Come on out, or we’ll come and get you.’ I crawled across the floor into the inner room. Mary was waiting for me. ‘I’m going up,’ I said. They’re right outside, and we might surprise them. Stick around down here and keep your eyes open. There may be trouble.’
And as I climbed up the ladder, I thought that last utterance was a nice example of the understatement.
Gently I pushed back the trap, waited, listening. Then slowly I raised myself so that my bead and shoulders appeared above the opening of the trap. Nothing happened. I wondered if those left on the far side of the valley were watching the roof. I hoped they weren’t. Moving out into the brilliant moonlight gave me a sinking feeling, but I moved out.
Lying flat, I edged across the roof, taking my time, careful not to make a sound, expecting any moment to be shot at from the other side of the valley.
It seemed a long way across the roof. As I drew near the edge, I moved more slowly, edging forward inch by inch.
More shots crashed out, startling me, but they were shooting at the door and not at me. Under cover of the noise, I pulled myself forward until I could see over the edge of the roof. I looked down on the shrubs and bushes that sloped away steeply into the valley. For a moment or so I couldn’t see any movement. Then I spotted a man, crouched behind a rock, about twenty yards from the cabin. Keep as still as death, I searched the ground before me. I spotted the others, spread out in a half-circle before the cabin. None of them were taking any chances. All of them were partly protected by rocks or shrubs. I reckoned I would pick of two, but the other three would get me unless Mac got them first. I decided it would be safer and wiser to tell Mac where they were hiding before trying to pick them off.
As I began to edge backwards, one of the men glanced up and saw me. He gave a yell and fired at the same time. The slug fanned past my face. I took a snap-shot at him, saw him fall, swung around and fired at the second man in the half-circle, saw him start to his feet, and then I wriggled back as crash of gunfire broke out below me and bullets struck splinters from the guttering where my head had been.
Bent double, I made a bolt for the trap-door, as gunfire broke out from the other side of the valley. I heard slugs zip past me as I half fell, half scrambled down the ladder.
‘Are you hurt?’ Mary asked breathlessly.
‘No.’
I didn’t pause, but ran into the outer room in time to see Mac standing in the open doorway, blazing away into the darkness like General Custer in his last stand.
As I joined him, he stopped firing and stepped back into the shelter of the doorway. ‘We got ’em pal!’ he exclaimed. ‘The whole damn five of them. How about a quick rush into the bushes before the rest of them get over here?’
Mary joined us.