"L'Amour, Louis - Sackett Family 11 - The Sky-Liners (a)" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

"I am in trouble," he said, "and my people are far
away in Atlanta and New Orleans."
"We are bound for the buffalo lands, but we would
leave no man without help. What can we do?"
"Come inside," he said, and we followed him
back into the tent.
This was like no tent I had ever seen, with rugs
on the ground and a curtained wall across one side
to screen off a sleeping space. This was the tent
of a man who moved often, but lived well wherever
he stopped. Out behind it we had noticed a
caravan wagon, painted and bright.
Making coffee at the fire was a girl, a
pretty sixteen by the look of her. Well,
maybe she was pretty. She had too many
freckles, and a pert, sassy way about her that I
didn't cotton to.
"This is my son's daughter," he said. "This
is Judith."
"Howdy, ma'am," Galloway said.
Me, I merely looked at her and she
wrinkled her nose at me. I turned away
sharp, ired by any fool slip of a girl so
impolite as to do such as that to a stranger.
"First, let me say that I saw what happened
out there in the street, and you are the first who have faced
up to Fetchen in a long while. He is a bad
man, a dangerous man."
"We ain't likely to see him again," I said,
"for we are bound out across the plains."
Personally, I wanted him to get to the point.
It was my notion those Fetchens would borrow guns
and come back, loaded for bear and Sacketts. This
town was no place to start a shooting fight, and I
saw no cause to fight when nothing was at stake.
"Have you ever been to Colorado?"
"Nigh to it. We have been in New Mexico."
"My son lives in Colorado. Judith
is his daughter."
Time was a-wasting and we had a far piece to go.
Besides, I was getting an uneasy feeling about where
all this was leading.
"It came to me," Costello said, "that as you
are going west, and you Sacketts have the name of
honorable men, I might prevail upon you
to escort my son's daughter to her father's
home."
"No," I said.
"Now, don't be hasty. I agree that
traveling with a young girl might seem difficult,