"R. A. Lafferty - Stories 5" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

In the Train Robbery, the peerless Clarinda Calliope plays Roxana
Roundhouse, the daughter of the slain locomotive engineer Timothy (Trainman)
Roundhouse. Armed with a repeating rifle, a repeating shotgun, a repeating
pistol, and a few pocket-sized bombs, Roxana rides the rods of the crack
Trenton Express in the effort to catch or kill the murderers of her father.
These murderers have sworn that they will rob that very Trenton Express again.
And Roxana Roundhouse does catch or kill all the murderers of her
father. In spite of some good shots of landscapes rushing by, this is not one
of Aurelian Bentley's best efforts.
And again the voices of unknown persons creep into the drama:
"You've already flayed me, Clarie, and scraped both sides of my pelt for
whatever might cling to it. What more do you want from me? Go away with your
lover and leave me alone." And then in a fuzzier voice (apparently the
"thought voice" made vocal) the same person said or thought: "Oh, if only she
would go away from me, then I might have a chance! For I will never be able to
go away from her."
"Grow more skin, Aurie," the other voice said. "I'm not nearly finished
fleecing you and flaying you. Oh, don't look so torn up, Aurie. You know I
could never love anyone except you. But a little token of our love is required
now and then, and especially now, today. Yes, I know you are going to use you
old line, 'I gave you a million dollars last week,' but Aurie, that was last
week. Yes, I know that you have expenses that the world wots not of. So do I.
Believe me, Aurie, I wouldn't ask for these tokens of affection if I didn't
want them." And then in a fuzzier voice, a "thought voice", the same person
said or thought: "I'll never get another fish like this one and I sure can't
afford to lose him. But gentle handling doesn't get it all the time. When the
hook in him shows signs of working loose a bit, it has to be set in again with
a very hard jerk on the line."
8. Six Guns on the Border is the eighth of the Bentley television
dramas. In this drama, Clarinda Calliope (is there no end to her versatility?)
plays the part of Conchita Allegre, the half-breed Apache and Mexican girl, on
the Arizona border during the Mexican War. Conchita hates the American
soldiers who are invading that area. She has them come to her secretly, with
promises of love, and then she has them ambushed and killed. She kills many of
them herself with her own six gun, and she makes antimacassars out of their
skins. The sort of gentlemen that Conchita really likes use a lot of oil on
their hair so Conchita needs a lot of antimacassars at her house.
But there are a few of the American officers so awkward and oafish that
Conchita simply can't stand to have much to do with them, not even long enough
to seduce them and have them killed. These horrible specimens are: Captain
James Polk (played by Leslie Whitemansion).
General Zachary Taylor (played by Kirbac Fouet).
Captain Millard Fillmore (played by X. Paul McCoffin).
Captain Franklin Pierce (played by Jaime del Diablo).
Captain James Buchanan (played by Torres Malgre).
Captain Abraham Lincoln (played by Inspiro Spectralski).
Captain Andrew Johnson (played by Apollo Mont-de-Marsan).
Captain Sam Grant (played by Hubert Saint Nicholas).
There was a lot of historical irony in this play, but maybe it belonged
somewhere else.