Outlaw Sanctuary [antikvár]

Old man Siddoway had been lurking behind the house foran hour, waiting for the schoolteacher to come home. Hehad got out of jail two days ahead of time, and the manwho had sent him there would not be expecting him.George Mallory was late, and he was hurrying home tohis invalid wife when Siddoway stepped around the cornerand cut him off from his own door. Intelligence or humankindness Siddoway did not have, but he had brawn which,in his estimation, gave him the right to browbeat and bullyhis fellow man. A wicked grin leered from a vicious facethat wore a prison pallor which looked like hoar-frost ondry parchment as Siddoway said, cc I warned you whatwould happen if you testified against me"Schoolteacher Mallory knew what to expect. Here inthese primitive Oregon woods no one had ever dared crossone of the brutal, bullying Siddoways, but he said, " I hadto tell the truth about you stealing that cordwood^ Sid-doway This will do you no good, and2^With an oath Siddoway struck the tall, frail teacher inthe mouth and knocked him down* He knocked him downtwice more, and when Mallory refused to stay downSiddoway kicked him brutally in the head, then jumped inhis stomach with both heavily braded boots. With cold,sadistic brutality Siddoway continued to kick and pummelhis prostrate victim until Mallory's seventeen-year-old sonrushed around the comer of the house.Siddoway saw the shotgun in the boy's hands, andreached for the hog-leg at his hip, but the gun was neverdrawn. Hugh Mallory fired both barrels without stoppingto raise the gun to his shoulder, and old man Siddoway fellto the grounda corpse without a face. A scholarly boyhad become a killer!For a moment Hugh stood stunned. Then he heard hismother's whimper and saw her fall in the snow. For thefirst time in more than a year she had dragged herself fromher bed Hugh dropped the shotgun, carried her back to