Читать книгу Hard-Pan. A Story of Bonanza Fortunes онлайн

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The magnificent panorama of hills and water lay still and enormous under the afternoon sun. It was not late enough for the summer’s drought to have burned the hills, and the nearer ones were a faint, mellow green. Their hollows were filled with clear, amethyst shadows, and the sea lay at their bases, motionless and level like a blue floor. The extraordinary vividness which marks the Californian landscape was softened by the almost imperceptible haze which overlay the scene. The watcher clasped his hands behind his head, and looked with troubled eyes at this splendid prospect. From the room beyond came the murmur of conversation, every now and then interrupted by the high, cackling laugh of Tod McCormick. Presently there was a break in the voices, they grew louder and decreased, the hall door banged, and Letitia came rustling into the room.

“It’s too bad Maud and Mortimer are not back yet,” she said. “You’ll have to talk to me.”

Gault yawned, flung out his arms in a stretch, and looked at her smiling.