The Essential Max Brand - 29 Westerns in One Edition. Max Brand
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Название: The Essential Max Brand - 29 Westerns in One Edition
Автор: Max Brand
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Языкознание
isbn: 9788027226078
isbn:
“Read the first group!” she commanded.
“One, one, three, two,” said Ronicky obediently.
“Book one. That’s Genesis. Chapter one, third verse, second word— ‘God. ‘ Ronicky, perhaps we have it, but I mistrust that beginning. People don’t begin codes with the word God. But no! What he’d used would be merely the first letter of the word. That must be it. The first letter is G. Next?”
“One, one, six, five,” read Ronicky dutifully, but his voice was uneven with his excitement.
“Book one, ter one, sixth verse, fifth word!” translated Jerry Dawn. “And the word is ‘there. ‘ Oh, Ronicky, we’re lost! There isn’t a word in the English language that begins with Gt. But go on.”
“One, one, nine, one. And don’t give up. We’re on the track of something!”
Hugh Dawn said nothing. He sat on a rock with his head buried in his hands, hardly able to endure the tension.
“Ninth verse, first word, ‘A. ‘ Gta. Ronicky, we’re lost, indeed. That isn’t the beginning of any word!”
“Wait a minute,” urged Ronicky, as she closed the book with a slam. “Count off the letters in the verses instead of the words. First book, first ter, third verse, second letter. What does that give you?”
“N.”
“Now sixth verse and fifth letter.”
“O.”
“Ninth verse and first letter.”
“A.”
“Twelfth verse and fifth letter.”
“H. It spells N-O-A-H! Ronicky, we have it!”
A groan of happiness came from Hugh Dawn, who rose and came stumbling to them. Steadily the spelling went on, Ronicky, scribbling down the letters as fast as the girl located them.
In conclusion he read:
Noah and the crescent in line with ravenhead and the vixen twenty down.
“Noah and the crescent in line with ravenhead and the vixen twenty down,” repeated Hugh Dawn sourly. “And what the devil good does all the work do when it only brings us to this? Noah and the crescent—twenty down!”
He groaned again.
“Just a minute more,” said his daughter, more eagerly than ever. “Doesn’t it strike you that those words are like names of places? Noah may be the name of a town. Then The Crescent, ‘ and ‘Ravenhead, ‘ and The Vixen. ’”
“But what good do four jumbled names do us,” asked the father.
“I have it!” cried Ronicky. “It’s sure plain now that it’s down in black and white. ‘Get Noah and The Crescent in line, and then get The Vixen and Ravenhead in line. And at the point where the lines cross, dig down twenty feet!”
Both father and daughter shouted as the whole riddle became clear.
“Heaven bless that iron box!” cried Hugh Dawn.
“And the hammer that busted it!” Ronicky supplemented.
“We’re rich,” went on Hugh Dawn. “The money’s as good as ours. We can start planning how to spend twenty millions. Don’t I know the old Ravenhead Mountain? And don’t I know The Crescent? And maybe they’s a couple of smaller mountains around them parts that are called The Vixen and Mount Noah. I dunno. But well start right now for old Ravenhead Mountain!”
X. DISASTER
In that determination, however, he was ruled down by Ronicky and Jerry Dawn. For now the twilight was deepening, and the way toward Ravenhead, over rough trails and twenty miles away, according to Dawn’s recollection, would make bitter work in the darkness. It was determined, therefore, to wait until the morning. With the first gray of dawn they would start, and by that light they should easily manage to get over the trail to Ravenhead by midmorning.
Ronicky Doone estimated the time at their disposal.
“We ought,” he said, “to have the stuff located by tomorrow night, and while we’re working Jerry can ride over the hills and get a wagon and a team of hosses from the nearest town. We’ll load and start straight back, and when we get near civilization we can hire enough gents to hold off Moon and his three.”
“His three?” Hugh Dawn groaned. “His thirty, more like! He’s got ‘em scattered through the country, son, and he has ways of getting in touch with ‘em pronto. If he got excited about this trail, he might have the whole crowd out combing the country for me inside of twenty-four hours. Still, I think we got time. He’ll spend most of today hunting by himself. Tonight he’ll send out his call. Tomorrow they’ll spend getting together. And day after tomorrow in the morning he’ll be ready to send out his search parties. I’ve seen him work that way before. But when he sends ‘em out, well already be snaking south for the railroad, hit it, and slide off east! Ronicky, for the first time in his life Moon is going to be beat! Not a chance in a million that he’ll ever connect me up with the old Cosslett treasure. Not a chance that he’ll think I’m hunting for it. He’ll figure me to be lying out in the hills waiting for a few days. And he’ll comb the country around Trainor before he steps out farther.”
The matter was allowed to rest there. Before the shack of Cosslett they built a fire of the wood which had been torn from the little veranda floor, and there they cooked their evening meal.
It was dark before they had ended. Afterward they went inside the shack. It was possible to clear the bunk and prop up its broken side after removing the fallen rafter. That made a comfortable bed for the girl. As for Ronicky and Hugh Dawn, they would sleep on the floor.
In the meantime, after putting down their blankets, Ronicky declared his intention of taking a ride on Lou by way of a nightcap. For he declared that he could not possibly sleep so soon after their rest of the midday. Father and daughter had too much to talk over to object strenuously. And a moment later he left the cabin. They heard his mare whinny a greeting to him, and then the roll of her gallop passed down the hill and out of hearing. Hugh Dawn listened to the disappearing sound, his head cocked upon one side.
“There,” he said, “goes a queer one!”
“Queer?” echoed Jerry, with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
“That’s what I said. Never saw the like of him yet, and I’ve seen a pile of men, rough and smooth and all kinds.”
“Of all the kinds I’ve known,” said his daughter hotly, “he’s the the finest, the bravest, the most generous.”
“Sure, sure! He’s all of that and more. I’m not holding it against him. But he’s a wild one, if ever I saw a man!”
“Wild?”
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