"TXT - Louis L'Amour - The Tall Stranger" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

wanderin' around in, and that route lies through Hardy Bishop's country. You
spoke of Hastings. He was the man who advised the Donner Party."
As his footsteps died away in the darkness, the members of the wagon train sat
very still, their enthusiasm suddenly dampened by that ill-fated name. They all
knew the story. The horror of it still blanketed the trail with its bloody
shadow of the party caught by snows in the high passes and starving until they
resorted to cannibalism as a way out.
Morton Harper shrugged. "Of course they started on Hastings's trail, but left it
too soon, and the route I suggest avoids all the higher passes." His eyes swung
around the group, gathering their attention like the reins of a six-horse team,
and he led them on with promises and suggestions, an easy flow of calm, quiet
talk, stilling their fears, quieting their doubts, offering them grass and water
instead of dust and desert.

In the morning, when they moved out, they took the trail Harper had advised,
turning off an hour after they left the fort. He glanced back, and smiled when
he saw that he was unobserved. Then he wished them luck, promised to overtake
them when a message came for which he waited, and galloped back to the fort.
Rock Bannon was with them. He rode close to Sharon's wagon, and after a time she
looked up. He had watched her the night before, had seen her fascinated eyes on
Harper's face.
"You don't approve, do you?"
He shook his head. Then he smiled, somewhat grimly. He was a dark, good-looking
man with a tinge of recklessness in his green eyes. "My views aren't important,"
he said, "I don't belong."
"Pike shouldn't have said that," she said. "He's a strange man. A good man, but
stubborn and suspicious."
"Not suspicious of the right folks, maybe."
Her eyes flashed. "You mean Mr. Harper? Why should we be suspicious of him? He
was only trying to help."
"I wonder."
"I think," Sharon said sharply, "you'd do better to be a little less suspicious
yourself! You admitted this was a good trail!"
"You haven't met Hardy Bishop yet. Nor Buffalo Hide."
"Mr. Harper said that Indian was farther north." She looked at him. "Who is
Hardy Bishop? You mentioned him before."
"He's a man who is trying to run cattle at Indian Writing. They say he's insane
to try it, but he's claimed seventy miles of range, and he has cattle there. We
have to cross his range."
"What's wrong with that?"
"If you cross it, maybe nothing, but Bishop's a funny man. He doesn't like
strangers very much. He's going to wonder why you're so far south. He's going to
be suspicious."
"Well, let him be suspicious, then!" Sharon said, her eyes bright and her chin
lifting. "We don't care, and we won't bother him any. Does he think he owns the
whole country?"
"Uh-huh," Rock said, "I'm afraid he doesЧwith some reason, as far as that valley
goes. He made it what it is today."
"How could any man make a valley?" Sharon protested. "This is all free country.
Anyway, we're just going through."