"TAGGART" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

It was typical of Adam Stark that he remained where he was until he had carefully
checked the country around for any movement, any smoke, any sign of Indians. The
more he studied the terrain from this vantage point, the more he realized that this
must be the lookout they would continue to use.
Few would suspect a lookout on top of Rockinstraw, and from here almost the entire
country could be searched. If either white men or Apaches were seen approaching,
all activity at the camp or the mine workings would cease until the strangers were
gone from the vicinity.
There were springs below the mountain. He located Sycamore Spring, of which an Apache
friendly to white men had
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TAGGART 5
told him several years before, and he found what must be Mud Springs, of which he
had also heard.
Taking careful sightings and establishing landmarks from the top of the mountain,
he went down, mounted his horse, and began his search. Yet even after locating the
canyon from the tip of the mountain, it took him more than an hour to find it, so
hidden was it.
It required another hour to find a way to descend into the canyon, but by that time
he had decided. This was to be their home.
There was a tiny chapel, only large enough to seat ten or twelve persons, and there
was a long building constructed of stone slabs and roofed with cedar timbers. There
was also an adobe stable, partly in ruins. Nearby was an arrastra where the ore had
been broken up to extract the gold.
Ghostly silence gripped the canyon. No sound could be heard but the soft footfalls
of his horse as he rode along the canyon in the sandy bottom.
He dismounted and went into the long house. Pack rats had nested here, an owl slept
on a low beam. The house was still dry, compact, perfect.
Beyond the chapel in a corner of rocks he found a trickle of water falling into a
basin some six feet in diameter. It was good water, clear, cold, and sweet.
The following day Adam Stark brought his wife and sister to the canyon and they moved
in. The wagon he concealed in the brush some three miles away, and covered it with
brush in a clump of prickly pear.
Miriam Stark put the bucket under the trickle of water and then straightened to wait
until the bucket was full, shading her eyes toward Rockinstraw Mountain. It was time
for Adam to be returning.
In the three weeks they had lived in the canyon only Adam had been to the diggings,
and when either of the women suggested going, he persuaded them to forget it for
the time
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6 Louis L'AMOUR
being. Each day he returned with a sack or two of ore which he broke up for the highgrade
they contained. He had found the mother lode ... the very gold for which this settlement
had been constructed, but which the padres themselves had never found.
Methodical as always, Adam Stark devoted four hours each day to mining, and four
hours to hunting or searching for food; the remainder of the time he gave to work
around the canyon itself. In all his movements he was careful to avoid using the
same route or leaving any tracks. Some part of each day was spent studying the country
and its approaches from the top of Rockinstraw.
Often that was done by Miriam, who had come to love the place and the far horizons