The Big Gundown
“Then he spotted his wife on the floor. “Good Lord, Gloriana! Are you all right?”
Out of instinct, Morgan had drawn his gun as he peered through the window. He saw that the train had reached the gap where the spur line entered the mountains. Those bluffs Sheffield had mentioned loomed closely on both sides of the tracks.
Atop the bluff to the right sat the cannon that had boomed a moment earlier. Men clustered around it, reloading it. Morgan saw a man run a wet swab on a long pole down the barre...l with practiced efficiency, putting out any lingering sparks from the first shot before a second charge of powder was packed into the weapon.
Other men armed with rifles clustered along the bluff, taking potshots at the train. Their intention was probably to make everyone in the cars keep their heads down until more outlaws could board the train and take it over.
Morgan grimaced. He couldn’t do any good with a handgun. He needed his Winchester, which was in the car with the buckskin, his saddle, and the rest of his gear.MoreLess
Out of instinct, Morgan had drawn his gun as he peered through the window. He saw that the train had reached the gap where the spur line entered the mountains. Those bluffs Sheffield had mentioned loomed closely on both sides of the tracks.
Atop the bluff to the right sat the cannon that had boomed a moment earlier. Men clustered around it, reloading it. Morgan saw a man run a wet swab on a long pole down the barre...l with practiced efficiency, putting out any lingering sparks from the first shot before a second charge of powder was packed into the weapon.
Other men armed with rifles clustered along the bluff, taking potshots at the train. Their intention was probably to make everyone in the cars keep their heads down until more outlaws could board the train and take it over.
Morgan grimaced. He couldn’t do any good with a handgun. He needed his Winchester, which was in the car with the buckskin, his saddle, and the rest of his gear.MoreLess
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Guest 2 years ago
I hoe that the first request Morgan makes of Sheffield is that he be supplied with a Gatling Gun, or perhaps a battery of them. He will HAVE to have something that can overcome that cannon. which is most likely., contrary to Johnstone's remark that it was "large" to be maybe a 2 or 3 lber at most. Even they are heavy to frag around.
Guest 2 years ago
I have to stop reading "The Big Gundown"...It's far to stupidly dialogued and vulgar, even froma pretty broadmijded person like myself.In fact, I think I'll saya fond farewell that J.A. Johnsto9ne completely. A rotten pretender of a writer. His "public" must be halfwitted and poor readers , even less comprehenders of the rubbish that is in fron of them.
There are MY comments, and would be the same by any half decent reader.
Guest 2 years ago
Johnstone is undoubtedly a GREAT writer. Falcon has just heas that his closest friends have been callously murdered, and yet, 20 mins. later he's laughing and chuckling, just because one hoof of the killer's horse has a bar across it. We, the ignorant readers understand the "significance", but not the laughter and chuckling.I don't believe Johnstone understands anything.
Guest 2 years ago
Cyrus is not backwards about mentioning how he shot the 4 men so quickly etc. And no one has warned the kid NEVER to mention it to anyone else who might be asking. When the Colonel and his men were there, I was expecting the writer to add to the blood and guts story, that Cyrus blurted out that the men had said they were going to BIsbee to meet the Colonel....or that the "kid" had shot them all. It would have been just in line with the tenor of the story... So maybe he slipped up there.
Guest 2 years ago
The "Kid" doesn't seem to be looking for the unknown person who paid the killers to kidnap and murder his wife. That story ended just when I expected that he would journey on to find him. I also expected that they would have marked the $50,000 ransom money . but this wasn't mentioned. The cool, calm collected major business man didn't even think of this.Write Review:
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