"048 (B074) - The Derrick Devil (1937-02) - Lester Dent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robeson Kenneth)

"Heel, Whitey!" ordered Enoch Andershott arrogantly.
The black dog skulked to Andershott's heels. There was no white whatever on the dog.
Enoch Andershott and Alonzo Cugg owned an adjacent oil lease. They had scouted the Sam Sands-Vida Carlaw-Reservoir Hill drilling wildcat and a geologist had told them that the way the strata was running, there might be an oil dome under this region, a few thousand feet under the old production. So Andershott and Cugg were here in person, keeping an eye on things.
The oil blue book listed both as millionaires.
"You might have shot us!" Enoch Andershott yelled.
"You got a cellar over there you can get in?" suggested Reservoir Hill sourly.
No one said anything for a while.
"What was happening?" Andershott growled.
"At risk of being called crazy," said the girl, "I'm going to tell you.
"Our driller, Ben Hogan, disappeared last night. We'd shut down drilling when a broken gear we'd ordered hadn't come. Ben Hogan took a walk. We never saw him again. We found his clothes. There's no reason why he should walk off naked—"
"You're forgetting that gummy stuff!" interposed Reservoir Hill.
"We found some stuff that looked like jelly or lube or something on the ground," explained the girl. "To-night, Reservoir Hill wanted to post a watch at the well. Sam Sands had first part of the night."
THE girl fell silent, looked at the dog. The dog's eyes were luminous green and almost awful in the weak flashlight's glow.
"We came out to relieve Sam Sands, found his clothing, saw a red object going into the oil well, and shot at it," the girl finished.
"We found another gob of that gummy stuff and it ain't lube oil!" added Reservoir Hill.
Enoch Andershott asked, "Miss Carlaw, were you here last night when your driller disappeared?"
"No."
"Then you just have this man Reservoir Hill's word for it?"
"Bless my children!" growled Reservoir Hill. "I'm gonna pat your wrist for that!"
Reservoir Hill started forward, and the big black dog came walking, stiff-legged, from behind Enoch Andershott. The dog made, deep inside himself, sounds like something dying. His fangs curved inward like a snake.
"Heel, Whitey!' said Enoch Andershott.
The dog stopped, but did not cover the fangs with lips.
Nobody spoke. Alarm in Alonzo Cugg's eyes had increased; his hands were more than ever in position for running.
"If there's more reckless shooting," said Enoch Andershott shrilly, "we'll call the sheriff!"
That seemed what they had come over to say. They walked away.
There was considerable crashing of brush when they went away, as if Enoch Andershott were smashing his path through instead of making any effort to go around.
"He does everything alike!" growled Reservoir Hill. "Just bulls through!"
The girl murmured, "You don't like him?"
"He flimflammed me out of my first stake," growled Reservoir Hill. "I had a lease over by Bartlesville, years ago. Enoch Andershott, a young man then, was my driller. He came into Bartlesville one night and told me the tools were lost in the hole.
"I didnt have money enough to run a fishing job. I was disgusted. He knew that. Andershott bought me out through another guy for a song. You know what I found out the next day, Viddy?"
"What?"
"My well had hit oil!"
"I'm sorry," the girl said sympathetically.
"So was I."
On a lease to the north, pumping started up and walking beams squeaked. The sound had an unnatural quality.
The girl and Reservoir Hill poked about with the poor flashlight. They found nothing. Then they walked toward the house.
THE house was one of those oil field things. Wood and corrugated tin. Inside, it was beaver-boarded, and no paint had been used. Floors were bare. Living-room furniture consisted of a table and ten kitchen chairs.
On the table was a deck of cards and an ash tray half full of ashes and cigarette butts. The girl accidentally upset the ash tray when she put her shotgun on the table. Reservoir Hill helped her in cleaning up the mess.
"Wish you'd try to get along with Enoch Andershott," the girl said. "Since he and Cugg have the lease adjoining us."
"We'll be all right!" Hill grunted. "Unless I meet him in a dark caсon when nobody is looking!"
They threw the ash tray mess outdoors.
"Reservoir!" the girl said.
"Huh?"
"Why are you so worried over the disappearance of our driller and Sam?"
Reservoir Hill went to the door and expectorated into the darkness. He had not laid his rifle down. He said, without looking at the girl, "Viddy, did you ever hear of that Indian legend about the papoose that was warned by his mamma not to dig holes in the tepee floor?"
"First time I knew you were interested in native folklore, Reservoir," the girl smiled.
"The papoose dug the hole in the tepee floor, anyway," said Reservoir. "An earth devil that lives in the center of the world sent his mean, red spirit up through the hole and grabbed the little papoose and ate him all up, except his grease, which would fry and sputter in the hot place at the center of the earth."
Reservoir Hill gave the girl a chance to speak, but she didn't seem able to think of anything.
"There's other legends about earth devils who send red spirits up to get men."
"Nonsense!" snapped the girl, "Indians have legends about everything!"