"Sean McMullen - An Empty Wheelhouse" - читать интересную книгу автора (McMullen Sean)

Hooligan would have shot him. Then the wateroo surfaced with the coin and handed it to dad. He
dived again, and again, going on for about half an hour until dad had over one pound in lost
coins, and a gold watch on a chain.
Well dad wasn't stupid, he pocketed the lot. When Hooligan's two men returned, though, he
couldn't resist showing them how the wateroo could fetch a coin out of ten feet of water. They
patted him on the head and gave him another shilling, then stood talking for a while. Then,
without getting clearance or anything they fired up the boiler, cast off and went steaming away
down the river. Dad thought nothing of it, he just sat on a barrel, flipping that shilling in the air.
An hour later, along came Hooligan.
"Where's me barge?" he shouted.
"Your men steamed off with it an hour ago," dad said.
"You're the kid we paid to feed the wateroos," he said, grabbing dad by the hair and shaking
him. "Where are they? Are they all right? Any sick or dead? Tell me, ye hear?"
"They're all right, they're on the barge," dad shouted. He thought Hooligan would drown him
or something. "They're not sick, Mr. Hooligan, why I had one diving for coins around noon. I
looked after them real good, that I did Mister Hooligan."
Now Hooligan looked really worried. "Coins? Diving?" he said. "Did ye show Bill and Zeke
that trick of diving for coins?"
"That I did."
"Hell and damnation, boy, how d'ye think they find the coins?"
"They see them-- "
"See them be damned, nothing can see in ten feet of muddy water and six inches of silt. They've
got special fingers, they can find metal under water and-- and why am I wastin' time here? Come
on!"
He dragged dad along the dock until they came to a riverboat that was just stoking up. It was
the Lady Daly, and her captain was the Yankee, Gus Pierce. He made dad tell Gus everything
about the wateroos, and yelled at Gus to chase after them.
"Sir, it seems like a lot of fuss over a few possums that can find coins under water," said Gus.
"Fool, fool, don't ye see?" shouted Hooligan, almost crazy. "They can find anything metal
underwater. They can find gold!"
"Gold! Is that true, boy?" he asked dad. Dad showed him the gold watch, still covered in river
silt. He turned back to Hooligan. "Mr. Hooligan, instead of chasing off after your partners, why
don't we just go catch some more wateroos then go prospecting?"
Hooligan threw his arms in the air and jumped up and down on the deck.
"The local natives said that there were only fifty left, and that they all lived in one particular
mountain pond. They were too hard to catch, so I blasted the pond with barrels of gunpowder.
Ten were stunned, the rest were killed. Those ten on the barge are the only ones left in the world!
I'll pay ye one hundred pounds, see, I've got the money here. Just get my wateroos back."
That was enough for Gus. He had the Lady Daly cast off and steered down the river, steaming
all out. Hooligan's men didn't know much about steam engines, so they were pottering along
slowly, trying to get the hang of things. The Lady Daly caught them up by mid-afternoon, and
after a few shots from Hooligan's Henry Repeater the pair dropped anchor and raised their
hands.
After Bill and Zeke were locked up Gus asked to see a wateroo in action. Hooligan let the
biggest one out and made dad drop that gold watch overboard. The wateroo dived and recovered
it.
"Now that's mighty impressive, Mister Hooligan," said Gus, looking thoughtful. Hooligan just
grunted and started to count the hundred pounds out of his bankroll.
"Now hold on there, Mister Hooligan," Gus went on. "Seems to me that I just did you a
valuable service, and that those wateroos are worth more than a hundred pounds. Tell you what,