"Frankowski,.Leo.-.Conrad.Starguard.4.-.Flying.Warlord" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

one, too. I still would be, except I lost my boat a few years back. I
would have lost my life with it, if it hadn't been for Baron Conrad
Stargard.

I was maybe the first man to meet him in Poland, next to the priest,
Abbot Ignacy at the Franciscan Monastery in Cracow. I was stuck
on the rocks on the upper Dunajec with no one but a worthless little
Goliard poet to help get me off. It was the poet's fault that we were
hung up in the first place, since the twit rowed to port when I yelled
starboard, but that's all water down the river. It was late in the
season, and the weather was cold. Another day, and the river
would be froze over and I'd lose my boat and cargo, all I owned,
and maybe my life, too.

Then along comes this priest and with him was Sir Conrad. He was
a giant of a man, a head and a half taller than I am, and I'm no
shorty. He was pretty smart, and after I'd hired them two, we got
the boat free in jig time with a line bent around a rock upriver,
following Sir Conrad's directions. Never saw the like of it.

He told me he was an Englishman, but I never believed it. He didn't
talk like no Englishman and he'd never seen an English longbow!

Now me, I'm a master of the English longbow. There's no one no
where who can shoot farther or straighter or better than me, and
that's no drunkard's boast. It's a gift, I tell you, and many's the time
I've hit a buck square in the head at two hundred yards from a
moving boat. I did it in front of Sir Conrad, and he helped me eat
the venison.

And if you don't believe me, you meet me down at the practice
butts some time, and I'll show you what shooting is all about. Only
you better be ready to bet money.

We got that load to Cracow and I paid off my crew, me spending
the night aboard to ward off thieves. Good thing, too, because
three of them tried to rob me that night and kill me, besides. I was
asleep, but at just the right time Sir Conrad shouts me awake, while
he was holding a candle to me.

I tell you there was three of the bastards on my boat, coming at me
with their knives drawn! I killed the first one with a steering oar,
broke it clean over his head and his head broke with it. I threw the
broken end at the second one and when he raised his arms to
ward the blow, I caught him in the gut with my own knife, just as
slick as you please.

The third one, he tried to get away, but in that kind of business,
where you're a stranger in town, you best not leave no witnesses!
Any thief would have a dozen friends swear that he was an honest