"Richard McKenna - The Secret Place" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKenna Richard)

me about Owen Price.
"He was always a crazy kid and I guess he read every book
in town," Dave said. "He had a curious heart, that boy."
I'm no folklorist, but even I could -ee how myth elements
we"e already creeping into the story. For one thing, Dave
insisted the boy's shirt was torn off and he had lacerations on
his back.
"Li~e a cougar clawed him." Dave said. "Only they ain't
never been cougars in that desert. We backtracked that boy
till his trail crossed itself so many times it was no use, but we
never found one cougar track."
I could discount that stuff, of course, but still the story
gripped me. Maybe it was Dave's slow, sure voice; perhaps
the queer twilight; possibly my own wounded pride. I thought
of how great lava upwell ings sometimes tear loose and carry
along huge masses of the country rock. Maybe such an erratic
mass lay out there, perhaps only a few hundred feet across
and so missed by our drill cores, but rotten with uranium. If I
could find it, I would make a fool of Colonel Lewis. I would
discredit the whole science of geology. I, Duard Campbell, the
despised and rejected one, could do that. The front of my
mind shouted that it was nonsense, but something far back in
my mind began composing a devastating letter to Colonel
Lewis and comfort flowed into me.
"There's some say the boy's youngest sister could tell where
he found it, if she wanted," Dave said. "She used to go into
that desert with him a lot. She took on pretty wild when it
happened and then was struck dumb, but I hear she talks
again now." He shook his head. "Poor little Helen. She
promised to be a pretty girl."
"Where does she live?" I asked.
"With her mother in Salem," Dave said. "She went to
business school and I hear she works for a lawyer there."
Mrs. Price was a flinty old woman who seemed to control
her daughter absolutely. She agreed Helen would be my
secretary as soon as I told her the salary. I got Helen's
security clearance with one phone call; she had already been
investigated as part of tracing that uranium crystal. Mrs. Price
arranged for Helen to stay with a family she knew in Barker,
to protect her reputation. It was in no danger. I meant to
make love to her, if I had to, to charm her out of her secret,
if she had one, but I would not harm her. I knew perfectly
well that I was only playing a game called "The Revenge of
Duard Campbell." I knew I would not find any uranium.
Helen was a plain little girl and she was made of frightened
ice. She wore low-heeled shoes and cotton stockings and plain
dresses with white cuffs and collars. Her one good feature was
her flawless fair skin against which her peaked, black Welsh
eyebrows and smoky blue eyes gave her an elfin look at times.
She liked to sit neatly tucked into herself, feet together,