THE BOY WHO FOUND CHRISTMAS & THE MAN WHO FORGOT CHRISTMAS. Max Brand
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Название: THE BOY WHO FOUND CHRISTMAS & THE MAN WHO FORGOT CHRISTMAS
Автор: Max Brand
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Книги для детей: прочее
isbn: 9788027222629
isbn:
"And now I feel like a skunk," said Jack Chapel. "If you can take my hand and call it square in spite of what I been thinkin' about you, here it is. If you're still mad at me, why, when you get on your feet again, we'll fight it out. What say?"
Lou Alp, trembling at the narrowness of his escape, clutched the proffered hand eagerly and wrung it.
"That's good," said Jack Chapel simply. "That's mighty good!" He seemed to brush away the remnants of the situation and turned to new things. "Give me your arms and I'll get you on my back," he directed.
"But what about the wagon and the horses?"
"Don't you see what'll become of 'em? With this storm at their backs, they'll drift straight down the road. I don't know a whole pile about this country, but I know there ain't more'n one road for 'em to take down this valley. As long as the wind blows, they'll keep moving and they may wind up fifty miles from here. The posse, if they start one out right away, will go straight for the place where the horses and wagon, or what's left of the wagon, are picked up. They'll start combing the hills for me around that place. They'll never think to look for me in a house. Even if they find me, they won't know me because I had my handkerchief over the lower part of my face and my hat pretty well down over my eyes. And it's a cinch that they'll never dream of lookin' for two of us!"
It was all so logically reasoned that the sneak thief nodded in admiration. The fever which had been gathering in him, and the waves of weakness, began to make his head swim. Yet he followed Jack Chapel's voice.
"First thing they'll do will be to look over the list of their old employees. Why? Because I only took part of the coin. On account of that the big boss will think that somebody he'd wronged, or somebody with a debt he wouldn't pay, tuned up a gun and came out to take what belonged to him by rights. And I'll tell you what they'll do. They'll be apt to send the posse right to the house of the first man around these parts that the big boss owes around thirty-five hundred dollars to. When they get all through with that sort of lookin'... then, and not till then... they'll take the back trail. By that time anything may have happened. Ten days ought to make you fit for a saddle, and most likely it'll be ten days before anybody bothers us here."
"And so?" queried Lou Alp.
"And so I'm goin' to take you up to that house, and I'm goin' to stay there with you. I dunno who lives there. But if it's white folks, and you don't talk too much, we won't be bothered. You hear me talk?"
The sneak thief smiled feebly as he was raised into the arms of Jack Chapel. "Jack," he said, "you're riskin' your life for me. I know you could make a getaway into the hills if you wanted to. You're riskin' everything to save me. You're givin' me everything. Some day I'll give it all back in a chunk!"
"Forget it," answered Chapel. "You talk a pile too much, partner."
Again he began to breathe hard as the strain of the steep hillside told on his legs and the weight of the limp body told on his arms.
IV. GOOD SAMARITANS
The half mile up that grade was no easy walk under any circumstances. With a staggering storm from one side, with the rocks slippery from snow, and with the burden of another man weighting him, it was a terrific task for Jack Chapel. Looking up into his face, Alp saw the fighting jaw thrust out and the muscles over the angles of the jaw harden. Yet he took the half mile with only three brief pauses for rest. Finally, just a brief distance from the house, he deposited the wounded man in a bank of snow and leaned over him, panting.
"I don't know what our story is going to be till I see the people of the house," he said. "The thing for you to do is to keep your ears open and your eyes shut. You understand?"
"You want me to faint?" grinned Lou Alp.
"Sure. Soon as I come close up to the door, I'll give you the word and you go limp. That'll bring me to the door with an unconscious man. As soon as I go in, they'll rush around until your senses come back. I'll have a chance that way to size up the gang in that house and frame a story. I'll tell the story so you can hear it. It won't be long, and you hang on to what I say. Will you do that?"
"I'll turn a flop," said the sneak thief, "that'll have the real thing beat a mile. Lead on!"
Where it was a mere matter of stratagem, Alp felt at home. His head cleared and his pulse strengthened as matters approached this new crisis. Once more he was taken up and they came in full view of a square-built ranch house whose tall windows promised capacious rooms within.
"Now!" cautioned Jack Chapel, and the thief made himself limp.
He became so perfectly inert that his left arm dangled toward the ground, his head dropped back and allowed his hat to fall off, while his long black hair blew in the wind. He heard a grunt of satisfaction from Jack Chapel that was music in his ears. Then he closed his eyes.
He was too much of an artist to attempt to look through the lashes at what passed around him. He remained in darkness, his mouth agape, his head dangling, his whole weight utterly inert. He felt Jack prop him up on one knee and then heard the clatter of knuckles against the front door; it was opened. Warm air rushed out around them.
"Hello, there! What you got? Not dead, man?"
It was a deep, strong bass voice.
"No. But drilled through the leg. Accident. Hunting." The reply of Jack Chapel was a tumbling mass of words panted out. "Lemme get him to a bed, will you?"
"Of course. Let me carry him."
"No, I'll manage him. Not serious, but he's played out. Lost a lot of blood."
"Up this way, then, son. Hello! Mother! Kate! Come here. Hurry up. Hurry, I say!"
A scurry of voices and footsteps in the distance, and then Lou felt himself being carried up a flight of stairs. The feminine rustling and voices came from behind and below and poured up around him. A young, pleasant voice had cried: "Poor fellow!" The voice of an older woman had screamed.
"Now, none of that foolishness," said the man who led the way. "Keep your head, Mother. He ain't goin' to die. Just a scratch. Lost a little blood. Kate, I want you to stand by to help. Get some water and bandages."
They reached level flooring, turned, and a door was opened. Lou could tell by the changed temperature of the air.
"I'll have a fire going in a jiffy," said the big man's voice. "Kate, get that hot water. But how did you get him here? How far'd you carry him?"
Lou felt himself laid upon a bed and then Jack Chapel was answering: "Not so far. We'd been hunting through the mountains. The storm got us, and we started down for lower levels. Coming along fine when this accident happened just in the hills, there above your house. And mighty lucky we were so close. Barbed wire is a curse, sir. Climbing through a fence got my holster caught... tried to get it loose... reached to pull my gun out... and somehow the thing went off and drilled Lou through the calf of his leg."
All the time he talked brokenly, he was working swiftly, taking off Lou's clothes. Presently Lou Alp found СКАЧАТЬ