"Evans, Tabor - Longarm 222 - Longarm and the Backwoods Baroness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Evans Tabor)

"That's right. Matt Kinsman was one of the first ranchers in these
parts. Still has one of the biggest and best spreads." The clerk looked
over at Longarm and added curiously, "Say, you're just full of questions,
aren't you, mister?"

That was just the reaction Longarm had hoped to avoid by leaving the
station when he had. He hadn't counted on the blasted clerk following him.
Still, he had gotten some more information out of the fellow, who flapped
his gums like he hadn't seen another human being in a month of Sundays and
was desperate to talk.

Longarm shrugged casually. "I like to know what's going on in a place
when I come to visit," he said. "Been a while since I've had a riding job.
Might just pay a visit to this fella Kinsman."

The clerk looked askance at him. "You don't look much like a cowboy
in that town suit."

"Oh, these are just my go-to-meetin' duds. My range clothes are in my
warbag."

The spring wagon from the Diamond K rattled away as Longarm made his
excuses to the clerk. Several of the cowboys were riding on the wagon with
the young woman; the rest of the bunch trailed it on horseback.

"Don't know if Matt Kinsman's hiring or not," said the clerk, rubbing
his jaw in thought. "Like I told you, he's still got a good spread, but
times are a little tight for him right now. He lost some cows to rustlers
not long ago, then lost some more when he had a well go bad. Course, to
hear Kinsman tell it, somebody poisoned that well, but I can't think of
anybody around here who'd do a low-down thing like that."

What about those lumberjacks? Longarm asked himself.

There was bad blood between the two groups; he had caught on to that
fact within moments of arriving there in Timber City. If he was going to
lean toward the Diamond K punchers as likely suspects in the trouble to hit
the Mcentire lumber camp, wasn 't it just as fair to think that maybe the
lumberjacks had something to do with Kinsman's problems?

No matter how you looked at it, the whole thing had the makings of a
pure-dee mess. And he was going to have to sort it out as quickly as he
could, because Uncle Sam had money riding on the Mcentire Timber Company.

"I'll probably talk to Kinsman anyway, can't hurt," Longarm commented
to the clerk. Then, with another casual wave, he set off down the street
toward the hotel. This time, the clerk didn't follow, as Longarm saw with
a glance behind him, and he was grateful for that.