Читать книгу Nameless River онлайн

31 страница из 59

He got to his knees and straddling the lad’s body came down on his throat with all his weight in his terrible grip. At the sound of the fall Minnie Pine leaped to a window.

“That black devil is killing the Blue Eyes,” she said in patois Spanish to Josefa. “Give me that knife——”

But there was no need of Minnie’s interference.

Kate Cathrew had heard that heavy thunder of falling bodies on boards and she was quicker than her half-breed, for she was up and away from the desk before Big Basford had risen on his knees, and as she rose her left hand swept down the wall, taking from its two pegs the heavy quirt that always hung there.

With the first jab of the boy’s head back on the floor, she was running down the veranda, her arm raised high. With the second she was between Big Basford and the light like a threat of doom.

As he surged forward once more above the blackening face in his throttling fingers, she flung her body back in a stiff arc to get more impetus—and drove the braided lash forward and down like a fury.