• Пожаловаться

Clair Huffaker: The Cowboy and the Cossack

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Clair Huffaker: The Cowboy and the Cossack» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию). В некоторых случаях присутствует краткое содержание. Город: Las Vegas, год выпуска: 2012, ISBN: 978-1-612-18369-5, издательство: AmazonEncore, категория: Вестерн / на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале. Библиотека «Либ Кат» — LibCat.ru создана для любителей полистать хорошую книжку и предлагает широкий выбор жанров:

любовные романы фантастика и фэнтези приключения детективы и триллеры эротика документальные научные юмористические анекдоты о бизнесе проза детские сказки о религиии новинки православные старинные про компьютеры программирование на английском домоводство поэзия

Выбрав категорию по душе Вы сможете найти действительно стоящие книги и насладиться погружением в мир воображения, прочувствовать переживания героев или узнать для себя что-то новое, совершить внутреннее открытие. Подробная информация для ознакомления по текущему запросу представлена ниже:

Clair Huffaker The Cowboy and the Cossack
  • Название:
    The Cowboy and the Cossack
  • Автор:
  • Издательство:
    AmazonEncore
  • Жанр:
  • Год:
    2012
  • Город:
    Las Vegas
  • Язык:
    Английский
  • ISBN:
    978-1-612-18369-5
  • Рейтинг книги:
    3 / 5
  • Избранное:
    Добавить книгу в избранное
  • Ваша оценка:
    • 60
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

The Cowboy and the Cossack: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «The Cowboy and the Cossack»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

On a cold spring day in 1880, fifteen American cowboys sail into Vladivostock with a herd of 500 cattle for delivery to a famine stricken town deep in Siberia. Assigned to accompany them is a band of Cossacks, Russia’s elite horsemen and warriors. From the first day, distrust between the two groups disrupts the cattle drive. But as they overcome hardships and trials along the trail, a deep understanding and mutual respect develops between the men in both groups.

Clair Huffaker: другие книги автора


Кто написал The Cowboy and the Cossack? Узнайте фамилию, как зовут автора книги и список всех его произведений по сериям.

The Cowboy and the Cossack — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «The Cowboy and the Cossack», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

CHAPTER THREE

PERSONALLY, I wasn’t all too keen about getting into that black surging water in the middle of the night and swimming to a shore you couldn’t even see from where we were. But when Shad called the men on deck together and told them about jumping off the ship, I seemed overjoyed compared to some of the others.

“Water is only to drink,” Big Yawn said with heavy finality, “not t’ get in.”

“Ain’t never swam a stroke in m’ life,” Rufus Hooker muttered. “Wouldn’t be much good t’ anybody if I wuz drowned an’ dead.”

“This is the way it’s gonna be,” Shad said. “Barum’s men’ll row our supplies ashore in small boats. Any man afraid of the water can go with ’em. But we’ll need about every hand we can get t’ drive those cattle t’ land through the dark.”

“But Christ, boss,” Rufus complained, “if a fella can’t swim—”

“You’ll be on horseback, Rufe, and your horse can swim,” Shad told him. “Just don’t let Bobtail’s nose or eyes go under water, and don’t let him turn belly-up under you. Either way he’ll panic and likely kick your head off. And if you do get unseated, grab ahold of his tail and he’ll pull you to shore.”

Rufus thought about this, frowning sadly.

Crab Smith took off his hat and scratched his head. “We’d follow you most damn anywhere, Shad, but I doubt if more’n half of us can swim more’n a doggy paddle. The water’s ice-cold an’ black as hell, and the idea of goin’ into it just plain scares me shitless! Maybe you ain’t scared of it, but—” His voice trailed off.

“I know it’s spooky.” There was a quiet understanding in Shad’s voice. “So take a boat, Crab.”

Sammy the Kid said flatly, “I don’t know about him, but I’m damn well takin’ a boat, and that’s that.”

Shad nodded slightly. “No fault taken, Kid. So be it.”

I had a sneaking hunch that Slim already knew the answer to the question he asked Shad now. “Can you swim, boss?”

Shad shook his head just once. “No.”

“Well, that’s sure good enough for me,” Slim said. “I ain’t about t’ take no boat then if you ain’t.” He turned to Crab. “Hell, we’re both at least a year past due for a bath anyhow.”

Crab put his hat back on. “Okay, Shad,” he said unhappily, “I’ll go. But I still don’t like it.”

Sammy the Kid turned and went over to the railing, his back to the rest of us.

Shiny Joe called out, “Link an’ me can swim like catfish. We can keep an eye out f’r Crab an’ some a’ them who can’t.”

Natcho was sitting in the chair that Yakolev had been using. He looked up now and smiled, his gleaming white teeth brilliant in contrast to his deeply tanned face and blue-black hair. “In Tampico I learned to swim before I could walk. And Chakko here is a strong swimmer too.”

Chakko nodded.

“With luck maybe we can make shore,” Old Keats said. “The thing I’m worried about is the cold. There’s still chunks of ice in that water. And it’s a good three-hundred-yard haul. A man could freeze.”

“I’ll be the first one in, and I’ll let you know if it can be stood,” Shad said. “Doubt it’ll kill us. But my guess is it’ll be invigoratin’ as hell.”

“Now that you got us humans convinced about how much sheer fun this swim is gonna be,” Slim said, “what I’m wonderin’ is, just how’re we gonna convince them longhorns t’ join along with us too?”

“After bein’ cooped up so long, a lot of them’ll likely dive for the first openin’ they get a chance at.”

“An’ the ones that don’t make that choice?” Old Keats asked.

“We’ll use gentle persuasion—and fire.”

Forty minutes later we were down in the main hold about ready to go.

Following Shad’s orders, half a dozen of Captain Barum’s crew were now forcing open an old, unused sea door on this lower deck where we could drive the cattle out from where they were milling and bawling in the big hold. It was only about a five-foot drop from this sea door to the pitching waterline below, so they wouldn’t bang each other up too much jumping out. That is, if Shad was right about us getting them to jump in the first place.

We’d lighted enough lamps to be able to see a little bit in this big, swaying place, and with the cattle now getting nervous, grumbling throatily and bumping each other around restlessly on the heavy plank floor, there were all kinds of funny, deep noises and wild, flickering shadows wherever you looked. Our thirty-horse remuda and the pack mules had made the trip at one end of the hold, separated from the longhorns by a rough partition of nailed-up two-by-fours. All of us, except for Sammy the Kid, who had stood pat about taking a boat, had saddled our best horses and led them through the cattle up to near the sea door. Even Big Yawn had decided to ride ashore. It was the first time I’d ever known him to change his mind. He still looked pretty grim, but I guess most everyone else deciding to go had kind of shamed him into it.

Crab Smith, wetting his own lips uneasily, said to Big Yawn, “You look as edgy as a whore in church.”

Upon occasion Big Yawn did manage to have a way with words. On this occasion he said shortly, “Fuck you and the horse you rode up on.”

The sailors, working with sledges and crowbars, and swearing a lot, now got the rusted sea door sliding with an agonized sound, and it slid all the way it would go, making an opening about twelve feet wide.

And, as the door grated open, looking out at that black, surging ocean just below gave a man one damn fearful feeling. I’d once swam across a twenty-foot-wide pond. But those ugly, dark waters pitching around in that inky night looked like their only use was for men to drown in.

Big Yawn swallowed hard. “How—how deep ya’ think it is?”

“Hell,” Slim said, trying without too much success to be cheerful, “maybe a mile. Maybe only half a mile. Who knows?”

“There’s one thing for sure,” Old Keats said gloomily, “it’s too damn deep t’ wade across.”

A couple of lights farther out from the town could be dimly seen on the shore, but right now they looked about a hundred miles away.

“Bring up Old Fooler,” Shad said.

Old Fooler was one of the great lead steers ever born. If those longhorns would follow anything it would be that huge black ox with one four-foot-long horn raised up normally and the other dipped down. There seemed to be something irresistible about that gigantic butt of his that usually made the others just plain follow it regardless of wherever he went.

Mushy and Rufe put a lead halter on Old Fooler and he came up to the sea door easy enough. But once he took his first look out, Old Fooler decided that was as far as he was going.

Shad was looking across the water. The first of the Queen’s small boats carrying out supplies was already being rowed toward the shore, about two hundred feet from the ship. There was a lantern raised on the boat that gave us a closer light to steer by.

“Get ready t’ push ’im overboard,” Shad said. Then he swung up aboard Red, his big strawberry-roan stallion. After two months at sea, Red shied under the unfamiliar weight on the shifting deck, but finally got all his legs under him. Shad put the noose of his lariat around Old Fooler’s neck, leaving plenty of slack in the rope. Then he spurred Red forward. But Red wasn’t at all interested in going either, and he did a little bucking dance instead, rearing back away from the sea door. Shad, who knew horses better than they knew themselves, let Red get away with this. He not only let him back off, but turned Red around as though they were in agreement and were now going to ride in the other direction. Then, still holding the reins in his left hand, he put his right hand over Red’s eyes so the big stallion couldn’t see, and he kept turning Red until they were again aimed at the sea door. Then Shad spurred the turned-around stallion fiercely and let go with a deafening cowboy yell that must have rocked the buildings in Vladivostok.

Читать дальше

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «The Cowboy and the Cossack»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «The Cowboy and the Cossack» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё не прочитанные произведения.


Larry McMurtry: Lonesome Dove
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
Barbara Dunlop: A Cowboy in Manhattan
A Cowboy in Manhattan
Barbara Dunlop
Marjorie Thelen: High Desert Detective
High Desert Detective
Marjorie Thelen
William Johnstone: Battle of the Mountain Man
Battle of the Mountain Man
William Johnstone
Отзывы о книге «The Cowboy and the Cossack»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «The Cowboy and the Cossack» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.