"David Drake - Old Nathan (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

And he bellowed a challenge that silenced for a fearful moment the birds whose chattering made the
woods a living place.

***

"I misdoubted you," said John Boardman. His saddle blanket was folded as a pad at the base of an oak
tree, but he had been pacing restively for some time before King and Old Nathan appeared around the
bend in the road. "It's late in the day, and I thought ye might not come."

"Said I would," Old Nathan replied, wrinkling his nose in disgust at a man who was surprised when
another man kept his word. "Long about evenin', I said." He waggled his beard toward the west, where
the sun would have been visible near the horizon were it not for the forest that stretched in all directions
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from the winding road.

"Well, I thoughtтАФ" temporized Boardman as he tried to find some useful way to continue the sentence.
One of his hands held the heavy saddlebag he had carried even as he paced alone on the road. His free
hand played with the butt of the six-barreled pistol thrust between his belt and waistband instead of loose
in his pocket. His gelding tugged its reins to browse more leaves from the sapling to which it was
tethered.

"Well, I brought the money," Boardman began again, hefting the leather bag, "but you'll not have it till
ye've done as ye claim. Laid the curse."

Old Nathan snorted. He and Spanish King had continued to saunter forward as the men talked. The
bull's cleft hooves spread under his weight at every step, and he placed them with greater care than
would a horse shod against the stones which rain and traffic had brought to the surface of the narrow
road. Despite his size, King's step was so quiet that his approach had gone unremarked by Boardman
who had been awaiting it desperately.

"Oh, I guess ye'll pay for the work I do ye," the cunning man said. He paused, his arm across the back
of Spanish King whose tail-tip flicked like a pendulum. "I don't guess yer sech a fool as ye'd face the
powers I'd bring onto yer head iffen ye played me false."

That was more bluster than not. Mere money was unlikely to be worth the trouble it would take to bring
a major sending onto a man as well protected as the wealth and servants of Boardman's father made the
boy. Nonetheless, the threat was useful . . . and not wholly empty. Old Nathan flew hot frequently, and
the anger puffed away like flame from thistledown. But he was capable of cold rages also; and they, like
glaciers, ground inexorably to a conclusion.

"Well," said Boardman, "I'll take ye into the valley."

He began to resaddle the gelding. It was a comment on his focus and nervousness that he tried to spread
the saddle blanket with one hand for some moments before he thought to set down the satchel with the
money. Old Nathan waited, his strong, knobby fingers massaging the bull's hide while Spanish King