"Louis L'amour - sackett06 - The Daybreakers" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

The Daybreakers by Louis L'Amourrelease info
The Daybreakers
by
Louis L'Amour



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About the Author



Chapter I
My brother, Orrin Sackett, was big enough to fight bears with a switch. Me, I
was the skinny one, tall as Orrin, but no meat to my bones except around the
shoulders and arms. Orrin could sing like an angel, or like a true Welshman
which was better than any angel. Far away back and on three sides of the family,
we were Welsh. Orrin was a strapping big man, but for such a big man he was
surprising quick.
Folks said I was the quiet one, and in the high-up hills where we grew up as
boys, folks fought shy of me come fighting time. Orrin was bigger than me, fit
to wrassle a bull, but he lacked a streak of something I had.
Maybe you recall the Sackett-Higgins feud? Time I tell about, we Sacketts were
just fresh out of Higginses. Long Higgins, the mean one, was also the last one.
He came hunting Sackett hide with an old squirrel rifle. It was Orrin he was
hunting, being mighty brave because he knew Orrin wouldn't be packing anything
in the way of sidearms at a wedding.
Orrin was doing no thinking about Higginses this day with Mary Tripp there to
greet him and his mind set on marrying, so I figured it was my place to meet
Long Higgins down there in the road. Just as I was fixing to call him to a
stand, Preacher Myrick drove his rig between us, and by the time I got around it
Long Higgins was standing spraddle-legged in the road with a bead on Orrin.
Folks started to scream and Long Higgins shot and Mary who saw him first pushed
Orrin to save him. Only she fell off balance and fell right into the bullet
intended for Orrin.
"Long!"
He turned sharp around, knowing my voice, and he had that rifle waist-high and
aimed for me, his lips drawed down hard. Long Higgins was a good hip shot with a
rifle and he shot quick ... maybe too quick.
That old hog-leg of mine went back into the holster and Long Higgins lay there
in the dust and when I turned around, that walk up into the trees was the
longest I ever did take except one I took a long time later.
Ollie Shaddock might have been down there and I knew if Ollie called I'd have to
turn around, for Ollie was the Law in those mountains and away back somewheres
we were kin.

When Ma saw me cutting up through the woods she knew something was cross-ways.
Took me only a minute to tell her. She sat in that old rocker and looked me
right in the eye while I told it. "Tye," she was almighty stern, "was Long