the nine pound hammer by john claude bemis

The man faced the monstrous hound as it snarled and leaped forward. The groaning and whining of gears churned from beneath its flesh. Its dark metallic eyes were set deep into bone-white fur, tufted and spiked with frost. Each tooth was as long as a hunting knife.

More massive than a bull, it was seven feet at the shoulder. With a snort of cold air, an enormous muzzle broke through the trees. He removed his straw hat and dropped it to the ground. At his back, the man heard the cracking of ice forming at the edge of the pond.

The moisture in the marshy earth froze, pushing to the surface in splinters of ice. As the two disappeared into the brush, another roar tore through the trees, felling limbs and flattening shrubs. The gunman nodded and urged the girl forward. “Follow the pond’s edge to the north and there’s a crossing.” An icy breeze pushed back their hair as their damp clothes grew crisp. “We need another way.”Īs if in answer, a roar erupted from the dark, shaking the trees around them and silencing the buzzing chorus of insects and frogs. In the other he held a sparkling silver pistol. By her side stood a man with long dark hair streaked with silver it fell about his face and covered his eyes. Scratches crisscrossed her pale arms, and a gash on her cheek bled freely. One was a girl with wide eyes, as fierce as lightning flashes. The other two stopped before a large pond. The palmettos and spiny bracken tore his trousers as he ripped away low-hanging limbs and spirals of Spanish moss. Dragging his legs through the muck, he pulled himself up on cypress knees to the slippery embankment. The night air pulsed with the reverberations of a multitude of insects, punctuated by bullfrog croaks and the occasional splash of something leaving the muddy banks for the safety of the swamp water.īefore him, two others struggled through the marsh. The man sank to his knees in black water.

The nine pound hammer by john claude bemis