Читать книгу Всадник без головы / The Headless Horseman онлайн | страница 24

Again in the saddle, she gathered up her reins, and plied her tiny spur – both acts being performed with an air of reluctance, as if she would have preferred lingering a little longer in the “mustang trap.”

Answer the following questions:

1) Who organized the picnic? What entertainment was provided?

2) What happened in the prairie? Was Louise scared?

3) Who saved her and how?

4) What lady did Maurice tell Louise about?

In the incipient city springing up under the protection of Fort Inge, the “hotel” was the most conspicuous building.

The hotel, or tavern, “Rough and Ready,” though differing but little from other Texan houses of entertainment, had some points in particular. Its proprietor was a German – in this part of the world, as elsewhere, found to be the best purveyors of food. Oberdoffer was the name he had imported with him from his fatherland; transformed by his Texan customers into “Old Duffer.”

There was one other peculiarity about the bar-room of the “Rough and Ready,” though it was not uncommon elsewhere. The building was shaped like a capital T; the bar-room representing the head of the letter. The counter extended along one side; while at each end was a door that opened outward into the public square of the city.

nightcap

One of the groups assembled in the bar-room consisted of some eight or ten individuals, half of them in uniform. Among the latter were the three officers: the captain of infantry, and the two lieutenants.

Along with these was an officer older than any of them, also higher in authority. He was the commandant of the cantonment.

These gentlemen were conversing about the incidents of the day.

“Now tell us, major!” said lieutenant Hancock: “you must know. Where did the girl gallop to?”

“How should I know?” answered the officer appealed to. “Ask her cousin, Mr Cassius Calhoun.”

“We have asked him, but without getting any satisfaction. It’s clear he knows no more than we. He only met them on the return”

“Did you notice Calhoun as he came back?” inquired the captain of infantry.