the line of trees. He had me in his sights. The hood was wetly plastered to his face, and I could see the outline of his nose and mouth beneath the material, clinging to him like wet baking dough.
He reached up and swept the hood off his head. He was grinning at me. 'You nigger-lovin' piece of shit. I'm sending you to the devil.'
I was still on one knee, waiting for the end, when suddenly there was a roar and a flash of red light. Elephant seemed to take a football kick at the sky with his right leg, only the leg was twisted funny and it went out longer than a leg ought to. The kick pulled his ass out from under him, and he came down with a scream that made my spine knot up.
Behind him, lying on the shore, looking as if he had just crawled through hell with the lights off, was Leonard. He was lying on the ground, holding Bear's shotgun.
I ran over to where Elephant was screaming and got hold of his rifle. I nodded at Leonard, said, 'Stay low,' moved back into the woods, out of the line of fire, scouted for Kevin. He wasn't where he had been. I glanced across the marsh, saw him making for one of the cars. ,
I got a little higher ground, and watched him run. He got in one of the cars and backed it around quickly. I jerked up Elephant’s rifle, took out one of the headlights, but Kevin kept turning about. I fired and took out a tire, but he kept going, blubbering along the wet highway on the rim.
I collected my Winchester and went to examine Elephant. His right leg was all but gone, cut off at the knee except for a few strings of muscle and flesh. He was screaming and howling like a dog with ground glass in his belly.
I went past him, on down to Leonard. Leonard was starting to lose his grip, slide back into the water. I tugged him to higher ground, said, 'Where's the other one?'
'If he didn't drown,' Leonard said, 'he's still down there stuck between roots. I choked him out. Bound him up with my belt.'
I took Elephant's rifle and the shotgun and tossed them in the water near the bank. I slung the Winchester off my shoulder.
'I wanted to kill him, Hap, but I didn't because I knew it would disappoint you. Same with the other fuck.'
'Killed either one of them, you'd have been justified,' I said. 'And to hell with me being disappointed. Cantuck's here. He's been hit.'
'I heard,' Leonard said. 'Guess I was wrong about him.'
I left Leonard on the bank with the Winchester, went back to Elephant. I got hold of the white sheet he was wearing, pulled it over his head while he screamed and cussed me. I said, 'You can let me tie up this leg, what's left of it, or you can try and give me shit and bleed to death.'
He didn't answer, just screamed and groaned, but he lay back and I used the sheet to tie off his leg above the wound. The sheet turned red immediately.
I went back to Leonard. Leonard said, 'How is he?'
'You may have killed him anyway,' I said. 'He's bleeding like a leaky water hose. I got to get to Cantuck's radio, call in some help.'
'I don't think he's got any help back where he's from,' Leonard said.
'Then we've got to do different.'
I went down in the water and found Bear, his arms bound behind his back with a belt that was looped around a root. He had slipped down into the marsh so far it was washing under his nose. He was still unconscious. I unfastened the belt, got hold of him and pulled him out of there. On shore, I ripped off his white tunic, tore it up, tied his arms behind his back, bent his legs up and tied them to his wrists.
Leonard grunted and groaned as I helped him to his feet. But his sounds were pretty well muffled by Elephant screaming and rolling about in the wet leaves. He hadn't stopped that for a moment.
Leonard nodded toward Elephant. 'He Draighten or Ray?'
'Can't say as I care,' I said.
Elephant stopped rolling. Just lay there, shivering, holding his hands above his chest like a dog lying on its back with its paws up.
We started for the highway.
Chapter 24
When we finally made it to Cantuck, he was on his feet. He leaning against the side of his car, his gun in one hand, his other hand over his eye. Blood was running from under his n, through his fingers, and the rain was washing it away as it came. Still, the blood had managed to stain his khaki jacket and had dripped onto his pants.
He said, 'I got glass in my eye.' We're going for a doctor,' I said.
Go to LaBorde,' he said. 'You don't want to go back way we le. There's no hospital fifty miles beyond Grovetown.'
“There's an asshole in a bad way out there in the woods,' I said. 'He doesn't get a doctor soon, he'll die. He's one of the guys jumped us in the cafe. One with a big ass. There's another out there tied.'
Draighten,' Cantuck said, then sagged to his knees and began to pant. Hang in, Cantuck.'
I opened the back door of the car, assisted Leonard inside, got Cantuck up and helped him. He was wobbly and heavy, and I was so weak from injuries, the swimming, the fighting, that now, with the adrenaline gone, I was feeling more sore than ever and sick to my stomach.
I put Cantuck in the front passenger seat, stumbled to the pickup, got hold of the dead man Cantuck called
