Jack Daw Part Four

The rope burned, like a necklace of fire. His hands were tied behind him and to his belt, to prevent slipping them under his legs. The knots were both cunning and cruel, and he had been searched thoroughly to make sure he had no blades. The ones he had hidden on himself were piled on the ground in front of him as a taunt…

** The reward lay heavily in his pouch as he rode away from town. One moment of carelessness was all it took, to end two unknown lives. If he had only packed the ‘sugar’ up before he left, the woman and her son would have lived. One moment of carelessness.
Ironically, in thinking about carelessness he paid insufficient attention to his surroundings. He was watching the sky move behind the up thrust trees, and when he looked down they were all around him. Some he recognized from wanted posters, other were unknown, but all had the same feral look of the urban predator.
The fight was short and decisive, and his last sight before he bid farewell to consciousness was a cloaked and hooded figure with a mask… and a cane. **

If he swung a little, trying to ignore the pain in his neck, he could hit the tree behind him with his feet, but he could gain no purchase on the smooth bark. A man behind him and to the right laughed at his efforts.

** Jack was surprised when he regained consciousness, until he felt the rope around his neck. He was being supported by a tough on either side and one behind him, and the man with the cane stood in front of him.
“Ahhh, good day, Mr. Daw. We were waiting for you to rejoin us.
“I’m afraid you probably know what the penalty is for betraying a member of Sam’s Seaside.” The man smiled, a careful movement that had little to do with amusement. “It is, of course, death. And it will be administered by hanging, in this case, as a warning to any others who have similar plans. You will be left here to swing, and to rot, and cause fear.”
Jack tested his bonds, but there was no give in them. He looked at the men around him, and there was no give in them either. The man with the cane watched him carefully for a second, then continued, satisfied that he was not capable of escape.
“Well, then. I’m afraid it’s time for us to part ways, Jack.”
Out of sight to Jack, men pulled at the rope, and he was inexorably drawn into the air, his breath cut off… **

There was nothing he could do. His vision blurred, and two faces swam before his eyes. A woman and a child…
“Boss! The guard!” The voice seemed to come from far away, and it didn’t make any sense to Jack.
“Well, Mr. Daw will have to find his end without us.” This voice seemed more familiar, but it was too much effort to recall why. “But as a parting gift…”
Agony tore through his chest, banishing the fog of death that had begun covering his mind. His vision cleared abruptly, and he saw the man with the cane withdrawing a bloody dagger. He felt the bright blood pulsing seemingly straight out of his heart, and he barely heard the words the man said as he left.
“We shall not meet again, Jack Daw.”