Читать книгу Buffalo Bill, Peacemaker; Or, On a Troublesome Trail онлайн

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“You’re white,” muttered the cowboy, “plumb white. I thought you had a lot of pards in your outfit?”

“They’re at Hackamore, waiting for me.”

“How many?”

“Four of them—but they’re four of the sort that can’t be picked up any day in the week. There’s Wild Bill Hickok, of Laramie, a man who doesn’t know what fear means, and who can lick his weight in wild cats. Then there’s my old trapper pard, Nick Nomad, who’s a diamond in the rough, and has gone through more tight corners with me than I can count. Next there’s the baron, who talks and fights with a Teutonic accent, but steps as high, wide and handsome as any of the rest.

“Last, but not least, I’ll mention Little Cayuse, the Piute boy, who’s a host in himself. These, Dunbar, comprise the force I can bring against the cattle barons. The barons will outnumber us, but our work will be to win by tact rather than by force; to compass our ends by diplomacy, and by the strong support of the law, which is at our back.”

“What do you consider the first move in this—er—campaign of tact and diplomacy?” queried Dunbar.