Guns of Mars 37
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 10.2
Near midday, they came across a herd of thoats grazing on strands of lichen hanging from a craggy ledge that ran along the western wall of the canal. The bounty man insisted that he use his smaller weapon to bring down a young thoat calf.
“Your cannon will blow the damned thing in half,” the man said as he knelt to site along the barrel of his carbine.
“And yours will merely cause the herd to scatter,” Kal scoffed as he held the reins of their mounts.
A single slug from the smaller weapon stuck the calf just below an eye and it fell to the ground twitching feebly. The others did indeed scatter but left the calf behind, stone dead.
They had food for a few more days and water for many days atop of that. Though they still had no idea of either what lay ahead or when they would run across a place where they could ascend from the canal.
There were places where sections of the wall had collapsed and they might be climbed by the man and thark. But they would have to leave the thoats and much of their goods and water behind. Wandering without transportation or enough to drink across the barrens above was not something they cared to contemplate.
The day following the killing and butchering of the calf, they came to a place where the western wall had come down over a long span. An island-sized chunk of granite lay on the canal floor where it had fallen long before. It left behind it a massive gap in the face of the wall with a steep but not unmanageable slope leading all the way to a ledge that ran just below the top of the wall. Through the telescopticon they could see that the rocky sill angled upward all the way to the crest of the break.
“It would not be without challenge, but we could lead our mounts up that trail,” the thark said shading his eyes to peer at the distant trail.
“It’s on the wrong side,” the man said and collapsed his glass to replace it in its pouch.
“So, it is south and east we need to travel,” Kal said, smug at the new information gleaned from the man’s casual remark.
“Yes, and all of Barsoom to wander in,” the bounty man said as he swung back into the saddle.
“That reduces the odds of finding a proper climbing route by half,” Kal grumbled.
“And you can do sums as well.” The man grew impatient with his partner as well as their increasingly dire circumstances.
“And what if we did climb out here and find another way across?”
“You’re a bridge builder now too. Maybe we could fly over to the other side. If we climb out now, we face the same problem as we do if we remain down here to the end of the canal. We would have to ride all the way to the great basin and cross to the east.”
Kal huffed and spat.
“All we can do is continue this way south,” the man said and spurred his mount forward.
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
