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

bitch-dog with 'im." Then he sprang up the wall, using a chink in the
logs at the height of a man's head to boost himself the last of the
way to the roof trestle.

"She comes close t' me, I'll claw'er eyes out," muttered the
hunching cat. "See if I don't."

"Just keep your britches on," snapped Old Nathan as he rose from
the table at which he breakfasted on milk and mush.

Despite the chill of the morning, he wore only trousers tucked into
his boot-tops and held up by galluses. The hair of his head and
bare chest was white with a yellow tinge, but his raggedly cropped
beard was so black that he could pass for a man of thirty when he
wore a slouch hat against the sun.

There was nothing greatly unusual about an old man's beard
growing in dark; but because he was Old Nathan the Cunning
ManЧthe man who claimed the Devil was loose in the world but
that he was the Devil's masterЧthat, too, was a matter for fear and
whispering.

Even as Nathan stepped to the door, he heard the clop of shod
hooves carefully negotiating his trail. The cat hadn't mentioned the
visitor was mounted; but the cat made nothing of the difference
between someone on foot who hoped to barter for knowledge, and
a horseman in whose purse might jingle silver.

Spanish King smelled the visitors and snorted in the pasture
behind Old Nathan's cabin. A man or a dog was beneath the notice
of the huge bull, save on those days when the motion of even a
sparrow was sufficient to draw his fury. A horse, though, was of a
size to be considered a potential challenger. King wasn't afraid of
challenge, or of anything walking the earth. The blat of sound from
his nostrils simply staked his claim to lordship over all who heard
him.

The horse, a well-groomed bay gelding, stutter-stepped sideways,
almost unseating his rider, and whickered, "No, I'm not goin' close
to that. D'ye hear how mean he is?"

"Damn ye, Virgil!" shouted the rider as he hauled on the reins. The
gelding's head came around, but his body continued to slide away
from the cabin.

"Now jist calm down!" Nathan snapped as he stepped onto the
porch. "That bull, he's fenced, and he wouldn't trifle with you
noways if he got a look. Set quiet and I might could find a handful
uv oats t' feed you."