Sudden Goldseeker

Начало книги

"You meanin' to call me a liar'?" The voice was high-pitched, immature, but it carried an underlying threat of violence. The speaker, a lanky boy of twenty, dressed in the rough garb of the frontier, stood glowering at the man who had dared to doubt him. This was an older fellow, more than twice his age, with a gnarled face upon which the challenge evoked a disarming grin.

"Aw, Tim, I got drunk with yore dad the day you was born," he said, and the roar of laughter which followed the naive confession relieved the tension. "All I'm sayin' is, if the stuff is there, why are you here?"

"I'll tell you, Preedy," the boy replied. "I come back to get the fixin's--tools, supplies, an' help--it ain't no one-man proposition."

"I'll say it ain't," another agreed. "The scum o' the country'll be there."

"We'll be sorry to lose you, Dabbs," the saloon-keeper said gravely. "You did oughta buy a farewell round." His chuckle started another burst of merriment, in which, after a moment's hesitation, the victim joined.

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