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

away with an open book in her lap. Gunter halted.
"Cap'n Kedrick, my niece, Consuelo Duane."
Their eyes met--and held. For a breathless moment no voice
was lifted. Tom Kedrick felt as though his muscles had gone dead,
for he could not move. Her own eyes were wide, startled. Kedrick recovered himself
with a start. He bowed. "Miss Duane!"
"Captain Kedrick," somehow she was on her feet and moving toward him, "I hope you'll
like it here!"
His eyes had not left hers, and now color was coming into her cheeks. "I shall!"
he said gently. "Nothing can prevent me now."
"Don't be too sure of that, Captain!" Keith's voice was sharp
and cold. "We are late for our visit. Let's be going. Your pardon, Connie. Burwick
is waiting."
Kedrick glanced back as he went through the door, and the girl
was still standing there, poised, motionless.
Keith's irritation was obvious, but Gunter seemed to have noticed nothing. Dornie
Shaw, who had materialized from somewhere, glanced briefly at Kedrick, but said no
word. Coolly, he began to roll a smoke.
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crouched behind a table. He was an incredibly fat and unbelievably dirty. A stubble
of graying beard covered jowls and his several chins, yet the eyes that measured
Kedrick beneath the almost hairless brows were sharp, malignant, close alongside
a nose too small for his face. His shirt was and the edge of the collar was greasy.
Rims of black marked fingernail.
glanced at the others, then back at Kedrick. "Sit down!" he "You're late! Business
won't wait!" His bulbous head swung Kedrick to Gunter. "John, this the man who'll
ramrod those off that land? This him?"
Yes, that's Kedrick," Gunter said hastily. Oddly enough, he almost frightened of
Burwick. Keith had said nothing they entered the room. Quietly, he seemed to have
withstepped momentarily from the picture. It was, Kedrick to discover, a faculty
he had when Burwick was near. "He'll the job, all right!"
Burwick turned his eyes on Kedrick after a moment. He nod"Know a good deal about
you, son!" His voice was almost
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genial. "You'll do if you don't get soft with them! We've no time to waste, you understand!
They've had notice to move. Give 'em one more notice, then get 'em off or bury 'em.
That's your business, not mine. I'll ask no questions," he added sharply, "an" I'll
see nobody else does. What happens here is our business."
He dismissed Kedrick from his mind and turned his attention to Gunter. "You've ordered
like I told you? Grub for fifty men for fifty days? Once this situation is cleaned
up I want to get busy at once. The sooner we have work started, the sooner we'll
be all set. I want no backfiring on this job."
Burwick turned sharply at Tom Kedrick. "Ten days! I give you ten days! If you need
more than five I'll be disappointed. If you've not the heart for it, turn Dornie
loose. Dornie'll show 'em ." He cackled suddenly. "That's right. Dornie'll show 'emI"
He sobered down, glanced at the papers on his desk, then without looking up, "Kedrick,
you can go. Dornie, you run along, too{"