Читать книгу Сердца трех / Hearts of three. Уровень 3 - Джек Лондон, William Hootkins - Страница 7

Jefe Politico of San Antonio, leaned back in his chair with a smile. The old judge gave judgment according to program. And the Jefe was two hundred dollars richer. His smile was even broader as he greeted Alvarez Torres.

“Listen,” said Torres. “We can kill both Morgans: Henry tomorrow, Francis today.”

The Jefe remained silent.

“I have advised him to storm the jail. The Solanos are with him. They will surely attempt to do it this evening. They could not do it sooner. Francis Morgan will be killed in the fight.”

“Why must we kill Francis?” the Jefe asked. “Henry must be hanged. But let Francis go back to New York.”

“Francis must be kept away from New York for a month or forever. I understood Senor Regan quite well. Money matters, you know.”

“But you have not told me how much you have received, nor how much you will receive,” the Jefe said.

“It is a private agreement. This Senor Regan is a hard man, a very hard man. But I will divide fairly with you.”

The Jefe nodded, then said:

“A thousand?”

“I think so. And five hundred is yours if Francis leaves his bones in San Antonio.”

“It must be more than a thousand,” the Jefe persisted.

“Senor Regan may be generous,” Torres responded. “He may even give me five hundred more, half of which will be yours.”

“I shall go immediately to the jail,” the Jefe announced. “You may trust me, Senor Torres, as I trust you. Come. We will go at once, now, you and I, and you may see the preparation I shall make for this Francis Morgan’s reception. So this Gringo will storm our jail, eh? Come.”

He stood up. But a boy appeared:

“I have information. You will pay me for it, Senor? I have run all the way.”

“I’ll sent you to the jail!” was the reply.

The boy cried:

“You will remember I brought you the information, Senor. I ran all the way!”

“What is your information, you fool?”

“The jail,” the boy said. “The strange Gringo has blown down the side of the jail. The hole is very big! And the other Gringo, the one who looks like him, has escaped with him out of the hole. This I saw, myself, with my two eyes! And then I ran here to you all the way, and you will remember… “

“I don’t believe you. It is not possible.”

The gendarme came through the door.

“The jail is destroyed,” were his first words. “Dynamite! A hundred pounds of it! A thousand! We came bravely to save the jail. But it exploded the thousand pounds of dynamite. I fell unconscious. When sense came back to me, I looked about. All others, the brave Pedro, the brave Ignacio, the brave Augustino[49] all, all were dead. The cell of Morgan was empty. There was a huge and monstrous hole in the wall. I crawled through the hole into the street. There was a great crowd. But the Gringo Morgan was gone. They rode toward the beach. They have a schooner. Francis Morgan rides with a sack of gold on his saddle. It is a large sack.”

“And the hole?” the Jefe demanded. “The hole in the wall?”

“Is larger than the sack, much larger,” was the reply. “But the sack is large. And he rides with it on his saddle.”

“My jail!” the Jefe cried. “My jail! Our justice! Our law! Horses! Horses! Gendarme, horses! To hell with Senor Regan! My law, our law! Horses! Haste! Haste!”

“Glad to welcome you on board, sir,” Captain greeted Francis with a smile. “But who is this man?” He nodded his head to indicate Henry.

“A friend, captain, in fact, a kinsman.”

“And who, sir, are those gentlemen riding along the beach?”

Henry looked quickly at the group of horsemen, took the binoculars from the skipper’s hand, and gazed through them.

“It’s the Jefe himself,” he reported, “with gendarmes.”

“They tried to hang me yesterday,” Francis laughed. “And tomorrow they were going to hang Henry.”

Here Enrico Solano approached Henry and held out his hand.

“I have made a grave mistake, Senor Morgan,” he said. “My beloved brother, Alfaro… I was thinking you were guilty of his murder. The evidence was all against you. I regret. I am sorry. And I am proud once again to welcome you into my family. You will marry my Leoncia.”