Читать книгу Hands Up! онлайн

47 страница из 67

"Not very far away," said Apache. "See—I've rolled half a dozen and pinched them firm. He's only got to lick them if he wants them. No, not very far."

There was a long pause.

"You working with Johnson up at his new ranch, ain't you?"

"Yes."

"Kind of a gardening job for a man like you, ain't it?" This said a little tentatively.

"Well, there are sure some implements to handle."

"They tell me he ain't got no stock at all on the place—that he's one of these yere new gents that grows a rose tree in a dump of cinders."

"That's what they say," said Apache. "Maketh the desert to blossom with the rose."

"That's what they say!" grunted Scotty, still staring out, his back turned. "Don't you know yourself when you're aidin' him in his pursuits? If it wasn't a man like you I'd say you were both locoed to try and grow fruit up there."

"It's been done all right," said Apache. "I've seen these gardeners come in where you'd think the only profession, bar cow-punching, would be making lava ornaments—in a drier country than this—just a day's ride more to hell, as they say—and—" he paused—"before three years were past there were these gardeners coming down in waggons and telling the cattle man that his day was done and—" he stopped short, aware of how he was maligning what had been given out as his occupation. At the same time Scotty turned slowly and surveyed him.