"SHOWDOWN AT YELLOW BUTTE" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

nothing to Kedrick.
seemed to strike some sort of a responsive note but
eould not put a finger on it. His eyes strayed down the street, the crowd. "You think
they'll really fight?" he asked, the street. "Are there enough of them?" bunch?"
Shaw's voice was dry. "They'll fight, all right.
some tough boys in that outfit. Injun scrappers, an' such They won't scare worth
a durn." He glanced curiously at
"Gunter says you're a fighter."
that doubt in Shaw's voice? Kedrick smiled, then shrugged.
along. I was in the Army, if that means anything."
West before?"
I was born in California, just before the Rush. When the
out I was sixteen, but I went in with a bunch from
Stayed in a couple of years after the war, fighting Apaches!"
Shaw nodded, as if satisfied. "Gunter thinks well of you, but only one of them, an'
not the most important one." short, thi,ck-set man with a square-cut beard, that
made him
enough like General Grant to be his twin, was pushing through crowd toward them.
He even smoked a thick black cigar.
man walking beside him was tall as Kedrick, who stood an inch above six feet. He
had a sharply cut face and his eyes
cold, but th+y were the eyes of a man born to command, who could be utterly ruthless.
That would be Colonel
Keith. That meant there was still one left he had to urwick. The three were partners,
and of the three, only was from the area.
7
4
Louis L'AMOUR
Gunter smiled quickly, his lips parting over clenched white teeth that gripped his
cigar. He thrust out his hand. "Good to see you, Kedrick! Colonel, this is our man!
If there ever was a man born to ramrod this thing through, this is the one! I told
you of that drive he mad for Patterson! Took those cattle through without losing
a head, rustlers an' Comanches be danged!"
Keith nodded, his cold eyes taking in Kedrick at a glance.
"'Captain--that was an army title, Kedrick?"
"Army. The War Between the States."
"I see. There was a Thomas Kedrick who was a sergeant in the fighting against the
Apaches."
"That was me. All of us went down some in rank after the troops were discharged."
"How much time in the war?" Keith's eyes still studied him. "Four years, and two
campaigning in the Southwest."
"Not bad. You should know what to expect in a fight." His eyes went to Kedrick's,
faintly mocking. "I have twelve years, myself. Regular army."
Kedrick found that Keith's attitude irritated him. He meant to say nothing, but suddenly
he was speaking. "'My American army experience, Colonel, was only part of the story.
I was with Bazaine, at the defense of Metz, in the Franco-Prussian War. I escaped,
and was with MacMahon at the Battle of Sedan."
Keith's eyes sharpened and his lips thinned. Kedrick could feel
the sharp dislike rising in the man.
"'Is that all?" he asked coolly.