Spook's Gold by Andrew Wood Page B

immediately onto his knees on what he assumed was the chest of whichever man had been behind the door.  Marner threw his fists at what he could just make out as the shape of a head on the end of the torso.  Two heavy blows out of three went home and he heard a satisfying grunt of pain, noting, however, that his right shoulder was very sore and limiting somewhat the power of his punches. 
    Lemele yelled again and peering into the gloom he could make out two figures wrestling a few metres along the hallway.  Marner lunged to his feet and moved forward but immediately tripped and sprawled on the debris of the felled door.  Instantly he was struck by a heavy blow to his forehead and stars flashed in his vision.  He had been kicked and had seen enough from the shadows to know that it was the figure on the right who had kicked him. 
    He heard a crack and the man yelped in pain; evidently Lemele was not entirely helpless and was putting up a spirited resistance.  Nevertheless, the next blow that he heard was heavier and he heard her whimper.  He sucked in air, hauled himself up on his arms and dragged his knees and feet under him into a crouch.  After taking a moment to test his sense of balance in his spinning head, he sprang upward like an animal, bellowing with rage. 
    The figure to the left, Lemele, was sliding down the wall as her legs buckled under her.  As Marner reached the man he saw the silver glint of a gun being drawn from a jacket pocket and extended outward to aim.  He grabbed out for the arm, grasping the wrist and pushing it up and away just as a shot was fired.  This one was a big calibre revolver, deafening in the confined space and images of the gaping wounds in Schull’s body flashed in his mind. 
    The man jabbed at Marner’s throat with his free hand whilst still trying to work the pistol back around for another shot.  Marner wrenched the hand from his throat, but now each of them had both arms occupied in this wrestling match and they pushed and heaved back and forth, bumping off the walls, Marner nearly tripping when his feet tangled in the legs of the unconscious Lemele. 
    Sensing the slight shift of weight of his opponent that signalled the coming knee strike towards his genitals, Marner managed to turn his hip and thigh to absorb the blow, which was numbing nonetheless.  His opponent’s momentary lack of balance afforded Marner the opportunity to lean in closer to deliver his retaliatory head-butt.  It hit directly home and he heard the man roar with pain as his nose cracked, Marner’s own head flaring again with stars at this new shock. 
    The man still had not regained his equilibrium after the attempted knee strike and Marner used his side-on position to press home his advantage by kicking his boot forward and under his opponent’s lower legs, pulling hard on the two flailing arms and thus tripping the man forwards and down onto his front.  Marner stepped back and sideways to give the body sufficient space to fall under its own momentum, realising that he would have to release the right arm holding the gun, but counting on the final face-down position to render the man temporarily unable to bring the weapon to bear.  The man was fast and agile, trying to bend and reform his knees to arrest his fall.  Marner had done enough hand-to-hand fighting and wrestling to know that he only needed to keep pulling on the left arm, keep the body coming forwards.  As soon as the man hit the floor, Marner immediately brought his knee down onto the neck to pin the man down.  The right arm flapped out trying to bring the gun up and around the head to orientate it in any direction for a shot, but the movement was impeded by close proximity to the wall.  He loosed off a shot anyway, possibly in rage or frustration, possibly hoping to startle Marner sufficiently that he might back off. 
    Unperturbed, Marner pounded his fist three, four times into the lower back which, thanks to Marner’s full