"Louis L'amour - sackett05 - Ride The River" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

Too many years, far too many.
"You are eighty-six years old, Finian," he said to himself, "of no age to go to
the sort of places you will be going tonight. I wonder just how much is left of
that young man who commanded his own vessel? Have the years carried it all down
the drain? Or is there something left?"
He wore the long trousers that had come in shortly after the beginning of the
century, and a top hat. He carried a cane ... was never without it.
"Sir?" Archie spoke quietly. "We must be careful. There are men down there who
would murder you for a shilling, a guilder, or a dollar."
"I have met them before, Archie, when I was younger. I am an old man now, but I
wonder how old."
They found Johnny Gibbons seated over a mug of ale in the Dutchman's, on Dock
Street. The room was crowded with a sweating, smoking, drinking melange of
seafaring men from Copenhagen to Cape Town and all the ports between. They were
men from ships which came in with the tide and would be off again in a day or a
week. They came ashore for the women, the whiskey, rum, or gin, and some even
made it back to their own vessels. Others were shanghaied by crimps and awakened
in a dirty bunk aboard a ship strange to them, their belongings lost to them,
their future in doubt.
Finian Chantry pushed the door open with his cane and stepped into the room,
recognizing Gibbons at once. That young man glanced up, his eyes riveted, and
his mouth dropped open in astonishment. Archie led the way through the crowded
room. Finian glanced around, enjoying himself, then seated himself opposite
Johnny Gibbons.
Johnny was embarrassed and worried. "Sir? With all due respect, you shouldn't
have come to this place! It is dangerous, sir. There are a lot of honest seamen
here, but almost as many crimps and thieves."
"Johnny, 1 spent my youth in such places. In and out of them, at least. I
commanded my own ship with crews who were more than half of them pirates."
"I know, sir, butЧ"
"Johnny, you worked for Adam Brunn? Do you remember the O'Hara case?"
"Of course, sir. It was the last case on which I was employed. One of the
O'Haras, the last of that line, I believe, was a friend of Mr. Brunn. It seems
the first of their family had been beholden to Barnabas Sackett, and very close
to Barnabas's son, Kin. Several times over the years there was contact between
the families, but the last O'Hara willed what was left to the last descendant of
Kin Sackett."
"The sum?"
"Something over three thousand dollars. Nowadays that's quite a sum, but the
money was the least of it. There was an iron cube, some sort of a Chinese
puzzle. He opened it and showed us what was inside. It was a sapphire, a big
one, couldn't have weighed less than twenty carats. He showed it to Mr. Brunn
and me and then returned it to the box, made a few deft twists concealed by his
palms, and handed it over to Brunn.
"When Adam Brunn died, his widow turned his business over to White. I protested,
but Mrs. Brunn listened to this woman who worked for her who was always telling
her what a wonderful man White was.
"I had given my notice before the old man died, as I wanted to set up for
myself, and she would not listen to me. She resented the fact that I was going
on my own, although Mr. Brunn did not. You see, I did not want to practice the