"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 281 - Town of Hate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

TOWN OF HATE
Maxwell Grant
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I.
Two houses stood on the hill.

Strange houses, those, because of their contrast. Individually, each had qualities that captured the
admiration. Compared as a pair, they clashed.

The same was true of the owners.

Claude Bigby owned the old mansion and it reflected his conservatism. For a century the Bigby family
had lived on the slope above the town of Lamira in the great stone residence which looked lost among its
own gables. The original Bigbys had hewn the oak trees to form the clearing where the next generation
had reared a mansion to replace the paternal log cabin. By then, the paper mill in the Kawagha Valley
had become a source of large and steady income.

By the time the mill had thrived and died, the Bigbys had become huge land-owners. They developed
acres of farms, orchards, quarries and other operations, until these had been parceled off to smaller
investors. From then on, the family had conserved its wealth, which now belonged to Claude Bigby. He
had inherited tradition along with visible assets.

The Bigby tradition was founded on one invariable rule: What you can't use, sell to someone who can.
The system had worked perfectly until Claude Bigby--present incumbent of the gabled mansion, sound of