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

it offered. Their brief periods of observation were not fool-proof. It was still
possible for an enemy to approach the area without being seen, during a time when
no watcher waited on top of the mountain. However, this would not be easy to do,
for the possible approaches could be studied with care, and most of them could be
covered to such an extent that a traveler could be seen when still far away.
Miriam was a tall girl who stepped out in easy strides and had never known what it
was to be tired from walking. At twenty-eight she was of an age to be considered
an old maid by everyone but herself, but to herself she felt no older than she had
at twenty, and the fact that she was unmarried worried her not in the least.
Long ago she had decided that marriage was not worth the trouble if one was married
to any but the right man, and she was content to wait. The passing of years since
she was sixteen had not dimmed her enthusiasm in the least.
Several times men whom she respected had wished to marry her, and once she had even
met a man more exciting than she would have wished, but she had good sense enough
to know he was the wrong man, and he like the others had been sent away.
Shading her eyes toward Rockinstraw she saw no sign of Adam, although it was about
this time, at the end of his day, that he went to the peak for a last look around
the country
11
TAGGART 7
before dark. She knew just where on the mountain to look for him, though there were
plenty of other places too on the mountain which offered concealment, and even some
caves that had once been inhabited by cliff dwelling Indians. Tonight there was no
sign of him.
When the bucket was filled she carried it back to the house. Consuelo was preparing
supper.
"You see him?"
"No ... he's probably on his way back."
"You think what we do if he does not come back? Suppose somebody kill him? What we
do then?"
"We would saddle up and ride to Tucson."
"I think 'Paches come here," Consuelo said gloomily. "I feel it. We are fool to stay."
"You wanted to go to San Francisco and buy a lot of fancy clothes ... that was all
you talked about in Tucson, so what did you expect him to do? He loves you."
"He is fool."
"Any man is a fool who will waste time on a woman who does not love him, and you
don't love Adam. He ought to take you back to Tucson and leave you there."
"He is weak. He is frighten. Once ... once I think I love him, but I like a strong
man. Adam is not strong."
"Adam has a sort of strength you'll never understand, Connie, and he has gentleness,
too. I hope the day comes when you realize the sort of man you married. He's worth
a dozen of that trash you seem to think are strong ... like Tom Sanifer."
Consuelo's eyes flashed. "You know why Adam bring me here? Because he was 'fraid
I run off with Tom Sanifer, that's why ... and he was right. If Tom had come back
I would have gone where he asked me. Tom told Adam when he came back he'd take me
away."
"In front of you?"
"Yes ... he told him. Adam, he just stand there and say, `I think you won't do that.'
Adam is a coward. If he is not a coward he would shoot Tom Sanifer then. He would
shoot him