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

but Judith has been west before, and she has never
known any other life but the camp and the road."
"She's been west?"
"Her father is a mustanger, and she traveled with
him."
"Hasn't she some folks who could take her
west?" I asked. Last thing I wanted was to have a
girl-ch along, making trouble, always in the way, and
wanting special treatment.
"At any other time there would be plenty, but now
there is no time to waste. You see Black
Fetchen had put his mind to her."
"Her?" I was kind of contemptuous. "Why,
she ain't out of pigtails yet!"
She stuck out her tongue at me, but
I paid her no mind. What worried me was that
Galloway wasn't speaking up. He was just
listening, and every once in a while he'd look at
that snip of a girl.
"She will be sixteen next month, and many a
girl is wed before the time. Black Fetchen has
seen her and has told me he means to have her ...
in fact, he had come tonight to take her, but you
stopped him before he reached us."
"Sorry," I told him, "but we've got
to travel fast, and we may have a shooting fight with
those Fetchens before we get out of Tennessee. They
don't shape up to be a forgiving lot."
"You have horses?"
"Well, no. We sold them back in
Missouri to pay up what Pa owed hereabs. We
figured to join up with a freight outfit we once
worked with, and get west to New Mexico. There's
Sacketts out there where we could get some horses
until time we could pay for them."
"Suppose I provide the horses? Or
rather, suppose Judith does? She owns six
head of mighty fine horses, and where she goes,
they go."
"No," I said.
"You have seen Fetchen. Would you leave a young
girl to him?"
He had me there. I wouldn't leave a yeller
hound dog to that man. He was big, and
fierce-looking for all he was so handsome, but he
looked to me like a horse- and wife-beater, and
I'd met up with a few.
"The townsfolk wouldn't stand for that," I said.
"They are afraid of him. As for that, he says
he wishes to marry Judith. As far as the town