The Pistoleer: A Novel of John Wesley Hardin

Начало книги

Nat, for the faith.

What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; th’ unconquerable will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield;

And what is else not to be overcome?

—John Milton, Paradise Lost

Oh, I’m a good old rebel, that’s what I am …

I won’t be reconstructed, and I don’t give a damn.

—Innes Randolph (1837–87)

PROLOGUE

He was the deadliest man in Texas, on that they all agreed. Otherwise, they might well have been talking about two different men….

Some said he was nothing but a hero. Hellfire, didn’t he take up a gun against the bluebellies riding roughshod over Texas in the dark days after the War? He was hardly more than a boy and already fighting injustice. And when the damnable State Police was bullying innocent people all over Texas, didn’t he give those Davis devils plenty of their own brute hell? Didn’t he run them out of Gonzales County just about single-handed? Yes, sure, he killed men, a lot of men—men who were trying to kill him! Self-defense is the First Law of Life; everybody knows that. And it’s an art—an art all men wish they knew well. He’d done nothing but live by that law and master that art. Who wouldn’t do the same if he but had the courage and the skill? So some said.

Читать дальше →