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

Kedrick hesitated, then arose. "How many of these men are there?" he asked suddenly.
"Have any of them families?"
Gunter turned on him nervously. "I'll tell you all you need to know, Tom. See you
later!"
Kedrick shrugged, and picking up his hat, walked out. Dornie Shaw had already vanished.
When he reached the veranda, Connie Duane still sat there. She was staring over the
top of her book at the dusty, sun-swept street.
He paused, hat in hand. "'Have you been in Mustang long?" 'She looked up, studying
him for a long minute before she spoke. "Why, no. Not long. Yet long enough to learn
to love and hate." She turned her eyes to the hills, then back to him. "I love this
country, Captain. Can you understand that?
"I'm a city girl, born and bred in the city, and yet when I first saw those red rock
walls, those lonely mesas, the desert, the Indian ponies--why, Captain, I fell in
love! This is my country. I could stay here forever."
Surprised, he studied her again, more pleased than he could easily have admitted.
"That's the way I feel about it. But you said to love and to hate. You love the country.
Now what do you hate?"
12
SHOWDOWN AT YELLOW BUI"rE
9
..."Some of the men who infest it, Captain. Some of the human
it breeds, and others, bred elsewhere, who come to it to
off the ones who came earlier and were more courageous but less knowing, less tricky."
More and more surprised, he leaned on the rail. "I don't know I follow you, Miss
Duane. I haven't been here long, but I
met any of those you speak of."
I She looked up at him, her eyes frank and cool. Slowly, she
her book and turned toward the door. "You haven't, Cap?"
Her voice was suddenly cool. "Are you sure? At this mo I am wondering if you are
not one of them!" She stepped "
the door and was gone.
Tom Kedrick stood for a moment, staring after her. When he
away it was with a puzzled frown on his face. Now what did mean by that? What did
she know about him that could
her to such a view? Despite himself, he was both irritated disturbed. Coupled with
the anger of the man Peters, it
a new element to his thinking. Yet, how could Consuelo " John Gunter's niece, have
the same opinion owned by No doubt they stemmed from different sources.
he walked on down to the street of the town and there, looking around.
He had not yet changed into Western clothes, and wore a
ttat-crowned, fiat-brimmed black hat, which he would retain, a gray suit, and black
Western-style boots. Pausing on the
he slowly rolled a cigarette and lighted it. He made a hing, handsome figure as he
stood there in his perfectly fitted
his lean, bronzed face strong, intelligent, and alert.
Both men and women glanced at him and most of them looked
His military erectness, broad shoulders and cool self:!possession were enough to
mark him in any crowd. His mind had
his immediate problem now and was lost in the never ending excitement of a crowded
Western street. All kinds of men and women seemed jammed together without rhyme or