Longarm and the Silver Mine Marauders

He asked, “What’s the matter with you, Fisher? Ain’t you ever seen a man carrying nitroglycerin before?”

Fisher’s voice trembled. “My, God. What are you going to do with that stuff? I can’t believe that you’re going to bring it right over next to us.”

Longarm knelt down, carefully setting the oilskin packets on the ground in the shade of the rocks. With careful fingers, he lifted the flap of one of the packets, exposing the two glass vials still nestled in the remaining bed of ice.

Fisher had taken an involuntary step or two backwards. He said, “Sonofabitch! You got that stuff right here! What are you going to do?”

Longarm glanced up, easing his face around the rock until he could see the horsemen. “I make them to be about three quarters of a mile off. What do you reckon? And by the way, it looks like eighteen to me also.”

Fisher said, “Yeah, I guess so, but right now I am considerably more concerned with what you’re doing with that dynamite juice. Longarm, do you have any ida how dangerous that stuff is? What are you going to do with it?”

For answer, Longarm reached into his saddlebags and pulled out the slingshot he’d had made. He held it by the wooden handle and put his finger in the leather pouch and tested the rubber cords, stretching it out to see how springy it was. To his right, Fisher gasped.

Fisher said, “I hope you’re not fixing to do what I think you’re fixing to do.”

Longarm looked around at him. “What? Did you think I was going to throw those damn vials?”

Fisher had gone white under his tan. He said in a trembling voice, “Longarm, you can’t do this. Look here, you’re going to draw that slingshot back. What if one of them rubber bands busts? The jolt will set one of them sonofabitches off and blow you and me right off this butte.”

Longarm said matter-of-factly, “Yes, that could happen.”

Fisher said, “Or when you release that thing, after you’ve drawn it back and then catapulted it out there, hell, the motion alone is going to shake it up. Longarm, this ain’t going to work. My God, man, this ain’t going to work.”

Longarm said, “I’m counting on them being so cold that it’ll take a considerable shock like hitting the ground to make the stuff blow up.”

“You’re counting on it? You mean you’re guessing.”

“Well, sometimes a man has to do a little guessing in life.”

“Not with my life, he don’t.”

“Fisher, take it easy. This is safe. Ain’t you ever taken a chance before?”

“This ain’t a chance, Longarm. You ain’t taking a chance. You are working your way right close to getting us blown all to hell. Have you lost your mind?”

“You’re making too much out of this thing, Fisher.” He said it with conviction, but his own hands were trembling slightly as he fiddled with the slingshot. “How far off do you reckon they are now?”

Fisher lifted a cautious eye over the rock. “They’re coming now pretty quick. They’re in a gallop. I think they’re going to try and get off a few shots at the crew. That engine is getting off mighty slow. I don’t think they left enough steam in the boiler. That train crew better get to hustling or they’re going to get a few holes in their smokestack.”

Longarm said, “Not if this stuff works like I think it will work. Tell me where they are now.”

Fisher said, “They’re about two hundred yards to our left coming straight down the middle between the buttes and heading straight for the engine. They’ve got their horses at a hard run now. A few of them have their pistols drawn, a few of them have rifles out.”

Longarm said, “I reckon it’s time then.” Willing his hand to be steady, he reached out and plucked one of the delicate glass vials from its icy nest. As gently as he could, he put it into the leather pouch of the slingshot, holding it delicately but firmly with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. He held the handle of the slingshot and said tensely to Fisher, “Where are they now?”

Fisher said in a faint voice, “These may be the last words I speak, but they are nearly even with us now. If you’re going to let that thing off, you’d better do it pretty quick.”

Longarm rose to a half-crouch, enough to see the band of men as they were starting to pass the butte. He let them pass it by about fifty yards and then with a prayer in his heart, pulled back the pouch of the slingshot as far as the rubber would stretch. Then, with as gentle a motion as he could, he released it. The glass vial flew through the Y of the slingshot and arced through the air. Both Fisher and Longarm watched in fascination as the vial arced further and further out and as the horsemen rode closer to its eventual descent.

The two men lost sight of it as it fell toward the ground, but then, an instant later, there came a terrific explosion right in front of the charging gang of bandits. A cloud of smoke and dust and dirt went up. They could see a flash of fire at its center. Following the thunderclap of an explosion, they could hear the high whinnies of the horses and the shouts and curses of men. Longarm had only a moment to survey what he had done. Then he knelt and took the second vial out of the oilskin pouch, carefully put it in the leather pouch of the slingshot, aimed it toward the middle of the bunch, and fired it, arcing it high in the air, watching it tumble end over end and then start down, down, toward the band that was intent on destroying the railroad. Only then could he see that several horses were down and a like number of men. Beside him, Fisher Lee was methodically firing his rifle. Longarm saw men fall out of the saddle suddenly. He saw horses go down suddenly. He was aware that Fisher had changed guns and that he was now firing Longarm’s carbine.

Then the second vial hit, exploding even louder than the first. This time, it hit right in the middle of the bandits. There was the same flash of fire, then smoke and a high-rising cloud of dirt and dust.

Fisher said, “My God. Would you look at that?”

Longarm said, “Keep shooting, dammit.”

As swiftly as he could and as carefully as he could, Longarm knelt and took another vial from the second pouch and fired it into the air. He was aiming this time behind the milling, frightened, scattering riders. He didn’t take time to watch this one land. Without pause, he bent to get the forth vial of the nitro. This time, he fired in a flatter arc, aiming to hit beyond the crowd of men who were by now so obscured by smoke and confusion that it was difficult to tell how many were down and how many were still up and riding. Even Fisher was now spacing his shots.

With the boom of the fourth explosion sounding in his ears, Longarm stepped quickly to the big sacks of ice and took out the third oilskin packet. As quickly as he could, he returned to his firing place, lifted out one of the vials, placed it in the slot of the slingshot, and fired, watching the twinkling glass oblong as it sparkled in the sun. He was already leaning down to reach for the sixth vial when he heard the explosion. This time, he fired without looking. There wasn’t much point. The smoke and dust made it nearly impossible to tell what the situation was below.

To his right, Fisher said in an anxious voice, “Ain’t you done yet? You’ve set off six of those damn things and I can’t see a damn thing that I’m shooting at.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll save the other two. I might have a use for one or two of them later.”

Fisher said, “I ain’t riding a foot further with you and those damn things. My God, will that dust never settle?”

He suddenly sighted and fired as a man broke out of the smoky haze. The shot knocked the horse down and the man went sprawling. He landed on his knees and started running toward the unfinished track. Fisher followed him with his rifle and fired. The bullet kicked dust up in front of the man. He wheeled as Fisher levered another shell into his carbine and then, aiming carefully, fired again. The man threw up his arms and pitched over backwards.

Longarm took up his own rifle and reached into his pocket where he kept some spare cartridges. As fast as he could, he rammed them home into his rifle. Then he leaned across the rock just in front of him, watching the back of the mass of smoke and confusion. Two riders suddenly burst out, heading back in the direction that they had come. He shot the first, leading him slightly, knocking him out of the saddle. The shot caused the second man to veer off to the right, taking him rapidly out of range as Longarm levered another shell into the chamber. He fired, knowing it was a chance shot and knowing that he would have to be lucky. He aimed for the man’s thigh, hoping that if he missed the man, it would hit the horse. The bullet went harmlessly wild and the man galloped on. Longarm hollered loud, “Fisher, quick, this way.”

They both swung their rifles in unison at the fleeing rider. They fired at the same time, and for a second it seemed that they had missed. Then the rider slumped forward in his saddle as the horse stumbled. The horse went head-down, flipping over on his back. The rider fell with him. After a second, the horse scrambled to his feet and ran off, trailing his reins. The rider lay in a crumpled heap.

Now, some of the smoke was starting to clear, some of the haze and some of the dust. What they saw was hard to believe. Some twelve horses were down and at least that many men. Longarm took a quick count. At best, he saw four riders, still aimlessly trying to find their way. Together, he and Fisher methodically concentrated on first one and then the other, firing simultaneously at the man the closest to his escape route. Within two minutes, all four were down.

It was suddenly all over. The only sound down below was a scream of wounded horses and the faint moans of a few men. Here and there, riderless horses ran backwards and forward, confused by the noise and the disturbance. It was quiet only in the sense that the earth-shattering explosions no longer sounded.

Fisher said, almost in awe, “Would you look at them holes in the ground down there, Longarm. This looks like what I would imagine war would look like.”

Longarm said, “I guess we’d better get down there. Did you see anyone get away?”

Fisher shook his head. “No, the only thing that I can think of is that somebody rode south and we wouldn’t have been able to see them through the dust and smoke that those bombs of yours was throwing up, but nobody came this way, nobody went north, and nobody went east, so it had to have been south.”

Longarm said, “Let’s go down and take a count. I sure as hell hope you were right about there being eighteen in that party. I sure as hell can’t take the chance and let one of them break away and get back to the Gallagher brothers.”

Fisher said, “How do you know that one of them ain’t a Gallagher or maybe both of the brothers? How do you know that?”

Longarm said, “I told you before. The Gallaghers don’t do their own dirty work. That’s how they have lasted as long as they have. We better get on down there.”

Fisher said, “Some of the men are wounded, but that don’t mean they can’t shoot. You don’t have to be that strong to shoot.”

“You come at them from one end and I’ll come at them from the other. We’ll stay well out of pistol range and we’ll let them know what will happen if a gun gets fired.”

“All right, Boss, then let’s go.”

“Did you just call me Boss?”

“Longarm, I’m going to call anybody Boss that can create as much destruction as you just did with that slingshot and those bottles of clear hell.”

With an effort, they scrambled their way down off the butte carrying their carbines and their freshly reloaded revolvers. Longarm led the way to the grove of trees where their horses were tied and pulled up the cinch, put the bit back into his horse’s mouth, and mounted. When Fisher was ready, they rode slowly toward the scene of carnage some quarter of a mile away.

Longarm said, “You go on to the west there and I’ll go off to the east. Stay at least one hundred yards away from the nearest man. I’m going to call out to them and see if they have any sense. If one of them fires, don’t hesitate.”

“You can make money betting that I will do that.”

As they approached the men and the horses that lay in jumbled heaps and piles, they separated, Fisher going toward the railhead end and Longarm riding off toward the direction from which the bandits had first appeared. Now and then, Longarm could see a man raise his head and watch him. Once, one of them waved a white handkerchief. He didn’t wave it long. After a moment, his arm fell limply to his side.

When he considered himself in position, Longarm called out, “I’m Deputy Marshal Custis Long of the U.S. marshals service. You men are all under arrest. Now, there is another lawman on the opposite side from me. If one of you so much as looks like you want to fire a gun, he’s going to shoot you and I’m going to do the same. There are wounded among you and we’d like to get you some help, but if you give us the least resistance, you’re going to get a bullet. Depend on it. If you have any guns near you, I’m telling you right now, sling them as far away from you as you can. All they are is a death warrant. I’m going to give you one minute by my watch to get yourself disarmed. Then we will start amongst you. I promise you that you will not gain a thing by being brave or revengeful. We are holding all the cards.”

With that, Longarm dismounted and dropped the reins of his horse. The dun would ground-rein and would stand in that position so long as his reins were touching the ground. Longarm cocked the hammer of his Winchester and started forward with the gun at the ready. Across the way, he could see Fisher doing the same. Wounded horses were still neighing and screaming.

Longarm said, “Anybody that is wounded, hold up your hand if you can. If you can’t, make a sound of some kind.”

As he watched, four hands went up and he heard a couple of whimpers. He slowly moved through the men from the eastern side, and Fisher came from the west. It was an ugly sight. Horses and mounts were ripped apart in some cases. Others were simply shot. Now and again, he saw a man with an entire limb missing. It was as gory a sight as he believed he had ever seen in his long years of law enforcement.

Longarm said, “All right, are there any among you that can walk or crawl? If so, I want you to crawl toward the west toward those tracks. I want you to do it now.”

As he watched, three men, two of them crawling and one of them limping, made their way toward Fisher. Longarm said, “When you get clear of this bunch, I want you to lay down face flat on the ground with your legs spread and your arms extended.”

Fisher said, “I’ve got to start killing these wounded horses. I can’t stand listening to them much longer.”

“All right, you do it. I’ll stand watch over the men.”

Methodically, one by one, Fisher moved among the wounded animals, shooting each one squarely in the head. Little by little, the distressing noise from the animals subsided.

Longarm was about to take a step further into the midst of the men when he saw a man who appeared dead, lying on his stomach, slowly work a revolver out from under his chest, sighting on Fisher. Without pause, Longarm flung the carbine to his shoulder, aimed at the back of the man’s head, which was only fifteen yards off, and then fired, There was a loud thunk and the man heaved up in the air and then fell flat.

Furiously, Longarm yelled at them, “That sound you just heard was the sound of a fool getting shot. Any more of you want to be heroes? I’ll drag the next one of you sonofabitches that tries that behind my horse for ten miles before I shoot him.”

Finally, all the dead were counted and all the wounded had been either helped or carried clear of the rest. There were eighteen raiders in all, five wounded and thirteen dead.

Off in the distance, Longarm could barely see the head of the engine of the train half hidden from view behind a butte. He could see puffs of smoke rising from the stack. He said to his friend, “Fish, we’ve got to get these men some help. They need to be carried into Springer where they can see a doctor. Why don’t you ride on over there and tell the engineer to bring the train up. Then get some of the workmen to load these wounded men onto those flatcars and bring them back into Springer.”

It took a long half hour for Fisher to ride to the train, for the engineer to bring his two flatbed cars up to the end of the rails, and for the workmen to get down and carry the wounded men back to the train. Longarm looked at his watch anxiously. It was after one in the afternoon, and he and Fisher were at least ten miles from the Oklahoma border where they were supposed to meet the Gallagher brothers. As far as he was concerned, the meeting was still on, and as far as he was concerned, that meeting was the cause of the slaughter that had just taken place.

When the wounded were taken aboard and the train was about ready to pull out, Longarm rode over and signaled to the engineer to come to him. He had decided on the engineer as the best man to be trusted with his suspicions. He told the engineer what he thought: that somewhere in the camp of the Silverado Mining Company was a spy for the Gallaghers who rode out and notified them whenever there was to be work done on the track. The engineer scratched his head and looked surprised.

Then the engineer said, “You know, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. Every time we’ve tried to work this last month, no matter what day we tried to work or what hour, no matter how many days we skipped, they’d always come down on us about four-five hours after we got cranked UP.”

“In other words, about the amount of time it would take to ride from the headquarters into Quitman and then from Quitman to here.”

The engineer nodded. “I see what you’re saying, neighbor.”

“If I was you, I wouldn’t speak of it to anyone else except Eugene and ask him to tell Mister Simmons. But I think it’s very likely that you have a spy in your midst. What I would do is schedule a work party, and then I would see who came up sick or lame the next morning or who left camp and was suddenly missing or who couldn’t go along. You may not have that trouble anymore. It might be settled.”

The engineer looked at all the dead men lying out on the prairie. He said, “Yeah, but their kind is a dime a dozen. From what I’ve heard of the Gallaghers, they can raise fifty more of them overnight. No, I don’t reckon this business is finished, but I’ll sure keep it under my hat, this tip you gave me. I’m much obliged to you, Marshal.”

Longarm asked the engineer if he would wait, saying that he had another passenger for him. Without telling Fisher where he was going, he spurred his horse over to the foot of the butte, and then clambered up to the rocky ledge where they had made their fight. He had two vials of the nitro left, but he wouldn’t be able to take Pedro with him, not on the ride that they were going to have to make to the territorial line between Oklahoma and New Mexico. Nevertheless, he was going to use the burro to carry the iced nitro back down the butte.

With great care, Longarm loaded the canvas sacks back on the burro and secured them in place with ropes, and then took Pedro’s lead rope and started down the craggy half-mountain, half-rock. It was with some relief that he finally reached the bottom. He mounted his horse, taking Pedro on lead, and rode slowly over to the train.

He could see Fisher watching him. Of course, Fisher didn’t know there was another oilskin packet remaining in the canvas sacks. Longarm did.

At the train, he dismounted and carefully took the canvas bags off the burro. He patted the animal affectionately, and then saw that two of the crewmen lifted the burro up onto the flatcar. He said, “Take care of my old buddy there. He’s earned his keep today. Somebody make sure that he gets fed.”

One of the workmen said, “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that, sir. This here burro is one of Mister Eugene’s favorites. He’ll give him a mighty good feed tonight.”

Fisher and Longarm stood and watched as the train slowly backed down the line. In five minutes, it was out of sight back behind the next butte. After that, Longarm began the tender process of packing the two vials separately in each of his saddlebags. He gave all of his ammunition and his extra revolver to Fisher along with the remaining bottle of whiskey that he had.

Fisher said, “You ain’t going to do what I think you’re going to do, are you?”

“I don’t have much choice, Fish.”

“Well, I can tell you somebody who is not going to ride beside you.”

“I don’t blame you. If I’s you, I’d ride half a mile away.”

“Yeah, sure, so you could say that I was scared. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“No, I’d much rather have your company, to tell you the truth.”

Fisher gave him an astonished look. “Why, you sonofabitch. You don’t care much about a friend if you’d just as soon see him get blown sky-high with you.”

Longarm was busy packing his saddlebags with ice. He had brought one of the empty oilskin pouches with him. He loaded it with ice before carefully putting one of the vials of nitro inside, then closed the flap and buried it in the ice already in his saddlebags. That left the second vial by itself. He reloaded its contents with ice and put it in the other side of the saddlebags.

Fisher stood there in stunned silence, watching him. “I hope you realize that it ain’t exactly the same as that burro carrying them. That horse of yours is way and gone more jouncy than that burro.”

Longarm put his foot in his stirrup and stepped aboard his horse. He said, “I ain’t got a choice, Fisher.” He had the slingshot in his hand and he turned, unbuckled the flap of his saddlebags, and put it in with one of the vials of nitro.

Fisher said, “What in hell makes you think that you’re going to need that?”

“I still think that we’ll be badly outnumbered, or at least I’ll be badly outnumbered. You’ll be coming back this way. I think I’ve got a bad need for that nitro.”

Fisher said, “I think that you’ve got a bad need for somebody to cut a hole in your head and look inside and see what’s in there. I think there’s a whole bunch of crazy people running around in there.”

Longarm said, “Fish, we’ve got to get moving. We’re late right now.”

As they set off eastward at what Fisher declared was too fast a pace, although in reality it was nothing more than a steady walk, Longarm fretted about the time and the distance to the line. He said, “Fish, this is the best chance that I’ve ever had in my life to get the worst men that I’ve ever known. I can’t mess this one up. This one has got to happen.”

“Well, hell. Looks like we made a pretty good start on them back yonder.”

Longarm said, “Yeah, but it’s like what the engineer done took note of. Those were two-bit gunhands. The Gallaghers can get fifty more with just a wave of their hand. We didn’t do more than cut down on the force at hand. I’m going to bet that they have anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen back with them in Quitman.”

Fisher shook his head. “You wouldn’t think there was that many bad folks in this world, would you?”

“Well, you were a lawman, Fisher. You should know.”

Fisher said, “It’s the times, Longarm. When times are hard, everybody turns to crime. They don’t think there is any other way of getting any money, so they turn to pointing pistols at other people. I blame the government for this.”

Longarm gave him a look. “That’s like blaming the bull that fathered the calf that grew up to be a steer that you ate a steak off that was too tough. That don’t make a bit of sense. A man can make his own way, he don’t need no outside help.”

“Spoken like a man who gets his meals at the federal trough.”

Longarm smiled thinly. “What are you doing way over there, Fisher? I’m getting tired of raising my voice talking to you. Why don’t you ride up closer?”

Fisher said, “I’m just fine right where I am.”

Longarm chuckled. “Do you think that twenty-yard separation’s going to make any difference to this nitro? It’s going to blow you just as high as it’s going to blow me, if it goes off.”

“Longarm, don’t be turning your head toward me. You look straight ahead for gopher holes or anything else that your horse might stumble over. You better handle that animal better than anything you’ve ever handled in your life.”

“Fisher, if you’d have caught a stray bullet while we were up on that butte, would you have been any less dead than you would have been if you’d been blown up by this nitro?”

“The point is, I didn’t get hit by no stray bullet, and yet here I am, a damn fool, riding alongside of a man that has enough explosives on the ass end of his horse to make us as flat as this prairie.”

“I think we’re going to have to strike a trot to get there in time.”

“You just strike all the trots you want to, but you give me fair warning when you do so I can get the hell out of here.”

Longarm laughed slightly. “No, I’m serious, Fisher. What I think that you better do is to lope on ahead and see if you can spot them. If you do, get word to them that I am coming but my horse is lame and I’m having to take it slow.”

Fisher smiled. “You know, I think that’s the best idea that I’ve heard you have in my life. You keep on thinking like that and you’ll never get any argument out of me. Are you serious?”

“It appears to me that we’re going to be about half an hour late. I calculate it’s still four or five miles to the border and it’s after two and at the pace we’re going, we’re not going to make it. Why don’t you gallop on up there and see if you can keep the situation in hand.”

“I can promise you that I am more than willing. Do you want me to bring the other brother back—Rufus, the one with the scar on his jaw?”

“I doubt that he would come until they got me. I wouldn’t get too close to them, Fisher. Just keep within shooting distance and let them know what is happening, let them know that I will be along in no less than half an hour. Don’t go up there and get yourself taken prisoner, do you understand me? If they act hostile, get your ass out of there.”

“Longarm, you’re still talking sensible. I think there may be hope for you yet.”

“There’s one other thing that we need to get settled before we come up on them. Let’s assume that everything goes smooth and Rufus comes on this side with you and I go off with Clem. As soon as you get out of sight of us, I want you to take care of Rufus.”

“Do you mean kill him?”

“Not unless you have to. I’ll leave that to your own judgment, but as quick as you can, I want you to get the drop on him and knock him on the head and tie him up. Do something so he will stay where you leave him. As soon as you are finished with him, I want you to come toward where I am and kind of scout around.”

Fisher gave him a sly look. “So it turns out that you figure that you might need my help. Is that correct, Mister Deputy Marshal Custis Long?”

“Yes, Fisher. I am reduced to such a level that I might even need your help. I hate to admit it, but that’s the case. I don’t know what I’m going to run into. But if you do see that I am in big trouble, don’t try and get me out of it by yourself. Go for help, do you understand? Wire Billy Vail at Denver and get every damn marshal you can to get me loose from whatever bear trap they got me in.”

“That part I think I can handle.”

“Well, that’s it then. You better get to kicking.”

“my friend, that’s something I can do.” With that, Fisher put spurs to his horse and started off in a high lope, heading east to the Oklahoma border.

As his friend grew smaller in the distance with every passing moment, Longarm realized that he had never felt more lonely in his life. The two ounces of clear liquid trailing along right behind him were no comfort at all.

Chapter 8

He made better time than he previously thought he would. By three-thirty, he could see several figures in the distance. He assumed they were somewhere around the line between the two territories. It had become brutally hot, and Longarm was aware of just how fast the extra ice that he stuffed into his saddlebags was melting and leaking out. He hoped that the ice that was packed in the oilskin packets was faring much better. He could look back and see how the water had stained the leather of his saddlebags. Of course, it wouldn’t do to ride up to the Gallagher brothers with water dripping out of his saddlebags.

The figures were coming near enough now, but he could see one much closer. As he watched, the man raised his arm and he could tell that it was Fisher Lee. Some two hundred yards past Fish, two other men sat on their horses. Longarm could only get an indistinct impression of them through the shimmering heat waves that rose from the desert plains. He noticed, about a mile further on, some kind of structure sitting out in the middle of nowhere. He couldn’t tell if it was a house or a barn or some sort of warehouse. At the moment, he wasn’t concerned. His only concern was making sure one of the Gallaghers went with Fisher while the other Gallagher brother stayed with him.

As he neared, Longarm saw Fish turn his horse and lope toward him. In a few moments, his tall, lanky friend was near enough to speak. Fisher said, “Well, I see you’ve made it this far.”

Longarm said, “Better keep your voice down. What did you tell them?”

“I told them that your horse was lame. I told him that I thought that he had bowed a tendon and that you’d be here if you had to carry the horse.”

“How close did you get to them?”

“Very damn unclose.”

“Were you able to tell if one of them had a very long white scar along his jaw?”

Fisher said, “Kind of It looked like it, but then again, I just told them I would hold my ground until you arrived. Naturally, they invited me to come on over for a parley, but I chose to tell them that it was my bound duty to keep an eye out for you.”

“Do they still seem agreeable to the terms?”

“Yeah, as far as I can tell.” Fisher was looking at Longarm’s saddlebags. “Marshal, I don’t know if you know it or not, but your saddlebags is kind of a dead giveaway that you’re carrying something in there that most folks don’t normally carry.”

Longarm said, “I’m going to pull my horse up and I’m going to dismount. While I am looking like I’m busy getting some kind of ointment out of them, in reality I am going to be emptying some of the extra ice. I want you to take a look at my horse’s front leg and pretend that it really was a bowed tendon.”

Fisher said, “You want me to get off this horse and stand by your horse while you go to fooling around with the nitroglycerin that’s in your saddlebags. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

Fisher sighed and dismounted. “I’m going to a doctor when I get back. There is something seriously wrong with a man who would do things like this, especially for the money. Do you realize that you have some of my money from that poker game? That wasn’t supposed to happen, Longarm.”

“If I ever get you to sit still long enough, I’ll own all your money and your soul and what little brains you have.”

They both dismounted, and while Longarm cleared out the last of the ice that was not contained in the oilskin packets, Fisher made busywork out of looking at Longarm’s horse’s front legs. Longarm took a peek inside each oilskin pouch. The situation in them was much better. There was still a pound of ice in each packet and if they did melt, the oilskin bags were watertight and nothing would spill out.

Nonetheless, the sun was getting hotter, and it wouldn’t be too much longer before the nitro would become more of a hazard to the man carrying it than to anyone it might be aimed at.

Longarm buckled the flaps of his saddlebags and remounted. He said, “Well, let’s go ahead and get this over with. It doesn’t look like more than a mile. You ride on out wide ahead of me so that we don’t make too inviting of a target. Don’t take your carbine out, but have your hand on it. If they do anything funny, take a shot.”

Fisher said, “Why in hell don’t we shoot them now?”

Longarm said, “Because I am not sure it’s the two Gallaghers. it would be like them to send two substitutes in their place to see what we are going to do. It wouldn’t mean a damn thing to them if we shot a couple more of their men. No, there’s no use in showing any more of our hand until we are sure that we have the goods. The only way that we can make sure is to find the one with the big scar on his jaw.”

Fisher said, “Yeah, according to your girlfriend. I wonder how many men can call her their girlfriend?”

“That ain’t the point, Fisher. I just don’t think she is smart enough to lie to me.”

“Longarm, when it comes to you and women, hell, you’ll believe anything if it gets you between their legs.”

“That’s a hell of a thing to say to a man, especially one of my taste and discrimination.”

“You’re discriminating, all right, and you have taste, all right, although most of it is in your mouth. I’d say that you discriminate. If she’s a woman, she’s got to have a pulse.”

Ahead they could see the two men separate a little as Longarm and Fisher approached. Longarm said, “Seems like they have the same idea that we do. Let’s pull up to within a hundred yards of them and talk terms and how exactly we are going to do this.”

Fisher said, “Sounds to me like somebody has to trust somebody, and I don’t think they’re the trusting kind. I damn sure don’t feel like being trusting to folks such as them.”

Longarm said, “Let’s just see how it goes. At least they’re here.”

“Yeah, if it’s them.”

As they rode forward, the other pair of men started in their direction. They came fifty yards farther as Longarm and Fisher slowly advanced. With the distance down to about fifty or seventy-five yards, both sides pulled up. Longarm could not quite make out the features of either man, but he could see the white scar along the jaw of the man to his left. He stood up in his stirrups and yelled, “Gallagher? You be the Gallaghers?”

The one on the right said, “Yeah, are you Marshal Custis Long, the one they call Longarm?”

“That’s correct. I hear you want to talk to me. I hear you have some wrongdoers that you want to deliver into my custody. Is that correct?”

The one doing the talking said, “Well, that’s right as far as that goes, but that don’t cover the whole business of the matter. I’m willing to turn these men over to you if you’ll give us a fair ear as to how come we’re being hounded and run down and persecuted like we’ve been when me and my brother ain’t never done nothing wrong.”

Longarm asked, “Who am I talking to?”

“Hell, you’re talking to Clem Gallagher. Who did you think that you were talking to?”

“Who’s the other man?”

“That’s my brother, Rufus. Hell, don’t you recognize him? I thought you had seen both of us. God knows, you’ve deviled us long enough. I thought you’d know us both by sight.”

Longarm said, “No, just from a distance and mostly from the back.”

“Yeah, I reckon that my shoulder blades twitched a little bit. Must have been just out of range.”

“The last man I shot in the back just happened to turn at the wrong moment.”

Clem Gallagher said, “I’ll make damn sure that I don’t make that mistake.”

Longarm said, “All right. How do you want to do it? I’m not coming over there until you give me somebody over here. Is Rufus willing to come over here? This is Fisher Lee. He’s a deputy U.S. Marshal out of the Santa Fe office.”

Clem Gallagher said, “I thought them were the terms, although I didn’t know you all had an office in Santa Fe.”

“It was my understanding that you didn’t get around the New Mexico territory very much, you didn’t care for it, and you didn’t have that many kinfolk there.”

“I’m willing to go through with the agreement that we made through Lily Gail.”

Longarm said, “All right. Send Rufus over. As soon as he crosses over, I’ll cross over to you. By the way, what is that shack over there?”

Clem Gallagher turned in his saddle and looked back in the direction of the old building. He said, “Oh, just some old sodbuster that didn’t make it. He tried to make a living growing rocks and cactus. I guess he thought that corn would grow in sand. It’s just a big old falling-down house.”

Longarm said, “Where are these men that you plan to deliver to me?”

Clem said, “They are right handy. If we reach an agreement, I can promise you that no less than fourteen men will be turned over to you, maybe more.”

“How come your brother never says anything?”

“He ain’t the talking kind.”

“Start him forward and I’ll start at the same time.”

Longarm watched the other man as, for a moment, he talked to Clem Gallagher. The scar was plain as he worked his mouth.

Clem Gallagher yelled, “Rufus wants to make it damn clear that he’s not going to surrender his weapon.”

“I don’t expect him to. Neither will I surrender mine. However, Clem, if anybody else joins us, then you’re going to surrender yours.”

Clem said, “It’s just me and you, Marshal. Dammit, I told you that all I want to do is talk. How come you can’t believe an honest man?”

“I do believe honest men. Start your brother.”

Clem Gallagher nodded at the man beside him, and suddenly the man with the silver scar on his jaw started his horse toward Fisher. Longarm touched the spurs to the flanks of his dun and matched Rufus, if in fact that was who he was, stride for stride as they neared the invisible boundary between them.

Off to his left, Fisher said, “Good luck, Longarm. I hope you don’t need any.”

Without taking his eyes off either man, Longarm said, “Unlike some card players I know, I don’t depend on luck, Fisher. You’d better mind yourself.”

Fisher said, “I believe I can hold up my end.”

“Well, we ought to get this over with pretty quick.”

Then, off to his left, the man called Rufus passed across the invisible line at the same time Longarm did. Longarm touched his horse again lightly with his spurs so that he increased to a faster walk. Then, suddenly remembering he was supposed to be riding a crippled animal, he quickly slowed him again.

As he neared, Clem Gallagher said, “is he stove up bad?”

“No. He got a loose shoe at the wrong time. I think it pulled his tendon a little bit. I nailed the shoe back tight. He seems to be improving considerable, but I don’t want to stretch him. I’m a long way from home and I just as soon he not go lame out here.”

They slowly came together and for the first time in all the years that he had been hunting them, Longarm was face to face with one of the Gallagher brothers.

The man had on a black, flat-crowned, straight-brimmed hat of good quality. He had on a white linen duster that reached to his knees. Under it, Longarm could see that he was wearing a good-quality shirt and corduroy pants. Longarm could just see the hammer and the back of the handle of what he took to be a Colt .44 with horn grips. Gallagher’s face was small and mean and pinched-looking. His eyes appeared to Longarm to be just a trifle too close together. His lips were thin and he had almost no chin. He had the look that Longarm had seen before in men who were just a little too mean, too greedy, and too vicious for their own good and for the good of those who chanced to cross their path.

Longarm was surprised at the age of the man. Even with the pencil-thin mustache that decorated his lip, he couldn’t have been more than thirty, if that. Longarm noticed that he had small hands. His face was not as weathered as it should have been for a man who spent time in the open. Longarm figured that the Gallagher style was to make the plans and then send others out to do the dirty work. Probably some of the men that had been enticed into the morning attack had been just that kind, but then, they were replaceable.

Longarm could not quite figure Gallagher’s size in the saddle, but he doubted that he would be very big. At the most, he would be five-seven or five-eight and weigh around 140 pounds. Longarm hoped that he would get the chance to put his fist through that smug, selfish little face that was trying to lure him into a trap. Longarm was in no hurry, but he was looking forward to telling Clem Gallagher at the right moment what had happened to eighteen of his riders and why he wouldn’t be tearing up anymore railroad lines and why he wasn’t going to be robbing the mining office in Springer.

But all that could wait. Longarm wanted to look the situation over very carefully before he showed his hole card. That might take a little doing. He said, “All right, I’m here, Gallagher. Let’s get on with it. Where are these men that you intend to turn over to my custody?”

Clem Gallagher’s horse was facing west. He turned him to come alongside Longarm. He pointed and said, “Do you see way up yonder beyond that old shack? Well, there’s a rise that drops off right sharp. Right below that is a barranca, a crevice. I’ve got fourteen bandits down in there who we’re holding under guard who have been going around doing depredations and other bad things in my name. Every damn one of them will tell you so. I want my name cleared and I want my brother’s name cleared and I want my family’s name cleared.”

Longarm glanced back to see how Fisher and the other man were faring. By now, they were close to a mile away, although Longarm noticed that Fisher had imperceptibly dropped back behind the other man. Not much, but just to where he had the advantage.

Longarm said, “By the way, whatever happened to your other brother, Vern?”

Gallagher’s eyes narrowed to slits. He said, “Some sonofabitch blowed him all to hell just outside of Lawton. It was at Lily Gail’s place. Damnedest thing that you ever saw. We had a man, a cousin by the name of Emmett, working there at that time. He came and told us that there was trouble and that we needed to come and help Lily Gail. Emmett led Vern and five or six others from the family, but they never came back, Marshal Custis Long. Everything exploded. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Longarm said evenly, “Listen, Gallagher. I’m only interested in one thing and that’s what kind of a deal we can make. I don’t know about your brother, I don’t know about your family, I don’t know about your old man that started this whole thing. All I know is that if you are as innocent as you claim you are, then you have nothing to worry about. If people have been going around committing, as you call it, depredations in your name, then we’d want to put a stop to all that, wouldn’t we? So, you just lead off.”

Without another word, Clem Gallagher started his horse off. He was to Longarm’s left. Longarm didn’t know if he had planned it that way, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. As featureless as the terrain was, there was very little cover to be seen, other than the old shack.

They rode along silently. Longarm’s thoughts, however, were beginning to turn to the nitroglycerin. Now it was protected by nothing but the ice in the oilskin packets. He hoped that it would be enough because by now the sun was boiling down hot enough to cook a lizard on a flat rock.

They were proceeding in a due easterly direction across the barren land. Longarm tried to keep his position slightly behind Clem Gallagher, but Gallagher seemed aware of the move and the more Longarm slowed his horse, the more Gallagher did the same, making sure they stayed abreast. Ahead and off to their right about fifty yards was the dilapidated-looking two-story house. It was bigger than the usual run of sodbusters’ homesteads. Somebody with enough money to truck enough lumber by wagon to build such a place had had a try at making a living off the barren ground. He knew that about four miles further on was the town of Quitman. Very little went on there besides drinking, gambling, whoring, and fighting. It drew the worst of a bad lot of people from a fifty-mile radius. If there was one thing that the Cimarron Strip could claim no shortage of, it was riffraff, bandits, criminals, and murderers of every ilk and every description.

They were just coming opposite the old house with its sagging porch and knocked-out windowpanes when Clem Gallagher suddenly stopped his horse. Longarm looked around at him. He said, “What’s going on, Gallagher?”

Gallagher spurred his horse and wheeled around to face Longarm. He said, “Well, Mister Deputy Marshal Custis Long. The famous Longarm who’s been dogging our tracks for years, nipping at our heels, caused our daddy an early death, killed God knows how many kin of ours. Well, now, Mister Sonofabitch, the shoe’s on the other foot and it ain’t on your horse. It’s fixing to be on your neck. Do you hear me?”

Longarm stared back at him. He said evenly, “I don’t know what kind of hand you’re playing here, Gallagher, but it’s a very dangerous one, unless you’re better with that revolver at your side than I think you are.”

“Oh, I ain’t going to need this revolver. You just glance to your right, Mister Famous Lawman. There’s five rifles trained on you out from that shack you thought was deserted.”

Longarm said, “Yeah, who says so?”

“Just have yourself a look.”

Longarm cut his eyes ever so slightly to the right. He had no difficulty spotting the rifles suddenly protruding from the broken windows. He counted five in a swift glance. At twenty-five yards they couldn’t possibly miss him.

He turned his head back to Clem Gallagher. “I expected something like this, Gallagher. That’s why we have Rufus. If I’m not back in two hours, your brother is going to be hung up from an oak tree and skinned alive. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The thin-faced man drew his lips back in what Longarm took to be some sort of a satisfied smile. “Why, you damn fool. That wasn’t Rufus. That were a second cousin of ours named Jeremiah Kettle.”

Longarm said slowly, “I see. So the scar on the jaw was just a coincidence. Is that right?”

“Do you mean would Miss Lily Gail deliberately lie to you9 Well, I don’t know about that, Longarm. Maybe she just got confused. A lot of people mistake Orvil for my brother Rufus. You ain’t so very damn smart yourself. I was doing all the talking and Rufus is the elder. Do you reckon that I’d have been doing all that talking if Rufus had been there?”

“I guess I was a little slow about that.”

“I reckon that you’re going to be slow about a lot of things by the time we get through with you.”

“Well, I’m still confused. How did Lily Gail make up a story like that so quick? You couldn’t have anticipated that.”

Clem Gallagher made that smile again. “That’s a mighty smart little lady, Marshal Longarm. She does things real good. It appears that some of the things she does you like. Some of them other things, you don’t like.”

“That man is still your second cousin. You know that he’ll never make it back to you.”

Clem Gallagher said, “Who the hell cares? I’ve got more damn cousins than your mother has fleas.”

“I guess you must be an expert on fleas, Gallagher. You appear to have some in your brain. Do you have any idea what’s going to happen to you if you harm a deputy U.S. marshal? You think you’ve been hunted before? That ain’t a drop in the ocean to what will happen afterwards. The entire marshals service will devote the rest of their time to running you to the ground.”

Clem Gallagher spat over the side of his horse. “Who gives a damn. We ain’t scared of your marshals service. Ya’ll have been trying to catch us for years. You ain’t done a very good job of it.”

Longarm said, “I think you’re lying about Rufus.”

Clem laughed. He turned his head toward the house. He yelled, “Rufus! Rufus! There’s a man out here that thinks you ain’t here! He thinks that you went off into New Mexico Territory with that other marshal! What did you do that for?”

Longarm turned his head to the right and looked at the shack. As he did, a man wearing an identical linen duster, only taller and heavier, came walking out carrying a carbine. He, too, wore a black flat-crowned hat, but around his neck he had a red handkerchief bound to keep the dirt from getting down inside his shirt. Longarm could see that he was wearing a vest and that his pants were held by both a belt and suspenders.

Clem Gallagher said, “There’s Rufus now. Why don’t you ask him how much we care what happens to Orvil Kettle? You can kill the sonofabitch for all we care. We’re content to have your ass. Now, I’ll tell you what you can do. Just as careful as you can, step down off that horse. Don’t you make no sudden move. Before you do, I want you to reach down and get ahold of your carbine with the one hand, get hold of it by the stock, pull it out, and let it fall to the ground. After that, you dismount real careful and keep both your hands in the air.” As he finished his remarks, Clem Gallagher slowly drew his revolver and pointed it at Longarm. He said, “Now is that clear?”

As Longarm pulled out his carbine from the boot, he glanced to the right to where Rufus Gallagher still stood. He had come no further than the edge of the porch. He stood there watching. Longarm assumed that whatever kind of party that they had in mind for him would take place inside the shack and that Rufus was probably the chief organizer of the festivities.

Longarm slowly eased his weight onto his left stirrup and swung his right leg over, keeping one hand on the saddlehorn and the other in the air so that Clem Gallagher would have no excuse for being sudden with the revolver that he had pointed dead at Longarm.

When he was standing by the side of his horse, both hands in the air, Clem Gallagher backed his horse up a few feet and motioned with his pistol. Gallagher said, “Walk toward me. Get clear of your horse. The horse is between you and the rifles in the house.”

Longarm took two steps forward so that he was just beyond the head of his horse. He thought it would be extremely funny if they suddenly fired at him, hit his horse, and blew themselves to kingdom come. Of course, since he would go up in the same explosion, it wouldn’t be nearly as funny as it would be if he wasn’t there.

Longarm watched as Clem Gallagher dismounted and walked toward him, his revolver in his right hand. He came and stood face-to-face with Longarm, or he came to stand in front of Longarm and tilt his face up to look into Longarm’s. He was even shorter than Longarm had thought. With his left hand, Clem Gallagher reached out and took Longarm’s revolver out of the holster. He pitched it to his left, toward the porch. Longarm hated to see his carefully kept weapon skidding along in the dust.

Clem Gallagher said, “Well, now, Mister Lawman. What do you think of yourself now?”

“I am supposed to stand here with my hands in the air like some damn fool? You’ve got me disarmed. Are you afraid of an unarmed man?”

Gallagher made a clucking sound in his voice that Longarm took for laughter. “By all means, Mister Lawman, put your hands down. You might need to scratch your ass. You might need to scratch a lot of places when we get through with you. You might not have a use for that little pistol that you use on Lily Gail so well.”

Longarm said, “Let me ask you something, Gallagher.” He turned before going on and looked at Rufus standing on the porch with his rifle. His rifle was hanging casually, not pointed at any one thing, but then Longarm reckoned that there were several backup rifles aimed directly at him. Whatever he did, it was going to have to be done soon and sudden. Once they got him inside the shack, they would no doubt bind his hands and then his options would be slim. He hooked his hands in his gunbelt, working his left thumb into the silver buckle where he kept the derringer. He made it seem like a casual nonchalant gesture intending to show that he wasn’t afraid. He said again, “Let me ask you something, Gallagher. You’ve gone through a hell of a lot of trouble to get me here and I’m curious as to the reason. Is it because of all that cash and silver that you think that I’m going to stop you from robbing in Springer, or is it because old Vern went up in a million pieces?”

Gallagher’s eyes suddenly blazed. He shifted the pistol to his left hand and with his right slapped Longarm with the flat of his hand as hard as he could. Longarm let the blow turn his face so that he was looking at the cabin. Then Gallagher came with a backhanded slap, only this time as the blow was carrying his face sideways, Longarm’s big right arm was coming up to grab Gallagher around the neck. As he grabbed him, Longarm pivoted, changing his position to face the shack. By that time he had the derringer out in his left hand and he was holding Gallagher up against his front, squeezing him with the muscles of his right arm against the man’s neck. He could hear Gallagher making choking sounds as he struggled.

On the porch, Rufus had brought up his rifle. Longarm stooped lower so that his head was not so far above Clem’s. He jabbed Gallagher hard in the back and said, “I’ve got a derringer in your back, boy. I’ve got a.38-caliber derringer, two barrels, and I’ll blow your spine in two if you don’t drop that revolver right now, right now, right now.”

Clem Gallagher was still making the gurgling sounds. Both of his arms were held straight out in front of him. His almost nerveless fingers let the pistol slip. It fell to the ground. Longarm began to back toward his horse, crabbing sideways. He yelled at the house, “Rufus, I’ve got a derringer in your brother’s back. You’d better put that rifle down right now or I’m going to blow the living hell out of him. Do you understand me? Put that rifle down.”

Rufus Gallagher said, “You go to hell.” Suddenly, with one spring, he jumped back through the open door of the shack. Gallagher tried to struggle, but Longarm clamped him tighter. By now, Longarm was at the head of his horse. He said to Clem, “Take hold of the bridle of my horse. Take hold of him right now.” He jabbed him hard with the derringer.

Clem Gallagher slowly put out a hand and took hold of the reins. Longarm began to back away from the shack. Unwillingly, Clem Gallagher was forced to lead Longarm’s horse. As they went backwards, someone in the house fired. Dust kicked up two or three feet to Longarm’s left and a bullet went whining off.

Longarm yelled, “One more shot and I’ll shoot this sonofabitch through the back.”

To illustrate his point, he raised his left hand so that they could see the derringer. Then he quickly stuck it back into Clem Gallagher’s spine. Little by little, they were putting some distance between them and the house.

Another rifle cracked and dust stirred under the belly of Longarm’s horse. He yelled, “You better stop that shooting. One more time and I’m killing this sonofabitch.”

A voice yelled back. Longarm assumed it was Rufus. The voice said, “Yeah, you kill him, then what are you going to do?”

“I’ll take it one at a time,” Longarm said. “But one thing that’s for certain is that I’ll kill your damn brother.”

The voice yelled back, “Then what are you going to do, Mister Marshal? Your pistol is lying up here and your rifle is in the sand. What are you going to do to defend yourself? Throw rocks at us?”

The distance had widened to some fifty or sixty yards. Longarm said, “Take your choice. If it’s worth that to kill me, ask old Clem how he feels about it.”

Clem Gallagher was still making the gurgling sound. He seemed to be getting limp at the knees, and Longarm suddenly realized that he was choking the man, cutting off his wind. He eased the pressure slightly. He said, “Tell them, Clem. Tell them how you feel about swapping your life out for mine. Tell them if they ought to trade your life for mine.”

At first Clem Gallagher’s voice came out in a hoarse whisper, and then he cleared his throat and coughed for a moment. He said, still hoarsely, trying to shout, “Don’t shoot, for heaven’s sakes, don’t shoot. Hell, Rufus, I’m your flesh and blood. Don’t shoot. Hell, let the sonofabitch go. We’ll get him another time.”

Longarm clamped his arm solid around Clem Gallagher’s neck. He called out, “There ain’t going to be a next time.” A shot suddenly rang out and Longarm heard a thud.

Chapter 9

For a second he thought they had shot his horse, and then he felt the body go slack in his arms and he realized that they had just shot his hostage. Another shot exploded from the shack, catching the Gallagher he was holding high on the shoulder. He suddenly realized that they were aiming for the arm he had around the man’s neck. By the weight of the body, he could tell the man was dead. He yelled, “Rufus, you crazy sonofabitch. Is it so important that you just killed your own brother?”

There was a loud cackle from the shack and a new voice called out, “That ain’t Clem Gallagher. I’m Clem Gallagher, you ignoramus Mister Smartass U.S. Deputy Marshal. That there fool you’re cuddling up to is our half-brother Virgil.”

Longarm was still stumbling backwards, trying to move away from the shack as fast as he could. Then he realized that the body that he was holding was no longer leading the horse. He took two quick steps forward, switching arms as he did, and grabbed the horse’s reins with his right hand, starting to run backwards, moving fast. Another shot was fired that thudded into the body. Longarm realized that very shortly they were going to hit him in the arm and probably break it. He estimated that he was some sixty to seventy-five yards from the shack. He yelled, “What kind of people are you that you’d kill your own half-brother?”

A deeper voice yelled. Longarm assumed it was Rufus. It said, “We got lots of half-brothers, but there ain’t but one of you and we’re kind of sick of you, do you understand? You’re right, there ain’t going to be no next time. This is the time.”

Just as he said it, Longarm suddenly released the dead body, and sprang behind his horse, frantically trying to increase the distance. Two shots rang out, and he heard and felt the thuds into the side of his horse. Instantly, he realized that if the horse fell full out, the nitro would blow up. The horse was swaying on his legs. He had already gone down to his front knees. Bending low, Longarm worked the ties that were holding his saddlebags. With his left shoulder, he was trying to prop the horse up as more bullets hit the carcass of the poor animal. It was taking all his strength. The horse’s weight was beering down on him harder and harder. He imagined that the animal was already dead. At any second now, the horse’s hind quarters would crumple and the nitro would go up, blowing him and the horse a long way up in the sky. Then, just as his strength was about to fail him, he undid the last tie and jerked the saddlebags loose. He fell at the same time as the horse, using the carcass as protection from the rifle bullets that were beginning to sing over his head.

Longarm was in no immediate danger. They could not hit him from where they were in the shack as long as he lay prone behind his horse. But all they had to do was spread either to the left or to the right, flanking him, and he was a goner. All he had in the way of a weapon was a two-shot derringer that was ineffective over five yards. There was, of course, the nitro and the slingshot, but he couldn’t raise up enough to sling one of the vials into the cabin. He could, perhaps, work his way onto his back, but that would expose him if he lay in such a way that he could see the shack. If he could see them, they could see him.

Meanwhile, the occupants of the shack seemed to take pleasure in whining bullets inches over his head. Occasionally, one of the slugs would hit his saddle and bits of leather and wood would fly. He thought of his horse, and it made him angrier than anything else. He had owned the dun for a good two years and during that time, the animal had never let him down. Even dying, he had managed to stay on his feet long enough for Longarm to free his saddlebags and keep the nitro from exploding.

Longarm was in a tight place and he knew it. He couldn’t run and he couldn’t fight. It was only a matter of time before they got tired of playing with him, circled around out of the range of his derringer, and either killed him outright or took him prisoner and killed him at their leisure. He rather imagined that the latter would be more to their taste.

As carefully as he could, without raising his head, he slipped the slingshot and one of the oilskins containing a vial of nitro out of one side of his saddlebags. He was unpleasantly surprised to see how little ice remained. In another thirty minutes, it would all be gone and then the hot sun would start warming the nitro. He’d understood from Simmons that it didn’t have to get very warm to explode. The slightest movement could set it off. If he didn’t get a shot at the shack in the next five minutes, he was in fairly serious trouble. He’d been in some tight places before and had always found a way to escape, but this time he wasn’t sure there was a way. At the moment, he was facing, by his best count, at least five rifles. He was behind a dead horse. He had a popgun that was a better weapon beyond five yards if you threw it. He had two vials of nitroglycerin that in the next fifteen to twenty minutes could very easily blow him sky-high unless he could find a way to use them. Other than that, the situation looked pretty good. He glanced up toward the sun. There was no hope of nightfall. Dusk was a good two hours away, and long before that the Gallaghers would figure out that he didn’t have a weapon in the saddlebags that they must have seen him untie. Or they would think that it might be a weapon of such limited range that they could flank him and force his surrender.

They seemed to have an unlimited supply of ammunition, judging from the steady barrage of shots that kept zipping over his head or thudding into his dead horse or hitting his saddle or kicking up dust behind him. Pretty soon, he decided, one of them was going to get the bright idea to get on top of the roof. He calculated the man would be able to whittle off his right side. The way he was lying on his belly the angle would be just right. The only chance that he had, and it seemed to be a very slim one, was to risk slingshoting a vial of the nitro at the shack. To do it meant that he would have to expose himself for two or three seconds. The nitro wasn’t something that you jerked around, so he would have to move very slowly and very carefully and with those five rifles aimed at him, it was almost a certainty that if he wasn’t killed outright, he would be wounded so badly that his chances of getting medical help would be slim.

Yet he couldn’t lie there and do nothing. As carefully as he could, he slid a vial of the nitro out of the oilskin pouch in the saddlebags. He took the slingshot handle in his left hand and with his right, he put the vial of nitro in the leather pouch. His hands were trembling at a time when he needed them to be rock steady. His only hope would be to roll over on his back, push out a bit from the cover of his horse, and try a blind shot at the shack. it was a very-high-odds play.

Then suddenly, he heard rifle fire from a different quarter. It was not shots coming from the cabin. In fact, the firing from the cabin had suddenly ceased. His head was near the rump of his horse and the shots were coming from the west. He inched himself forward a foot, careful of the nitro, and peered out from behind the hindquarters of his horse. A few hundred yards away, he could see a man lying in a prone position and firing. It was Fisher Lee. Longarm smiled. He said, “Fisher, you old sonofabitch, I love you.”

The unexpected rifle fire on their flank had distracted the men in the shack long enough to divert their attention from Longarm. He knew he had about ten seconds and it was a do-or-die ten seconds to save his life. The distracting fire, that Fisher was laying down was nothing more than that, a distraction. In the long run, he could make no difference in the outcome of the battle, and he could do nothing to save Longarm’s life. He was firing from just within the perimeter of his range. He was also firing from a very exposed position, and if they chose to turn all their weapons on him, he would be an even easier target than Longarm was.

He didn’t think all these things, he simply reacted as each thought raced through his mind. In an instant, he had swiveled around, come up to one knee. and with one smooth motion drew back the pouch, aiming, judging the distance, hoping he was right, calibrating as he had never calibrated a shot with any other weapon before, and then releasing the shot as he dropped down behind his horse.

For a long time, it seemed as if nothing had happened. Then there came a blast that even he could feel from where he was. Longarm wasn’t waiting for the blast, nor was he wasting time attempting to see what the results of the first shot had been. From the second that he had flopped down, he had been busy getting out the eighth and last vial of nitro. By the time the boom had finished sounding, he was already raising up to fire the second shot. He was aware as he looked that the shack was almost blown apart, but the vial was away and glittering through the sunlight and he was falling back behind his horse before the full vision registered. After that, he lay and just hugged the ground.

The second boom sounded even louder than the first. Perhaps that had been because the second vial had been warmer than the first. When he’d pulled it out of the oilskin envelope, there had been no ice left. His mind had registered that fact even as he was slipping it into the leather pouch, realizing that he was cutting it mighty thin. But he had gotten it away and the explosion had occurred where it should have.

Now he just waited. There was no more rifle fire, either from the shack or from Fisher Lee, but he wasn’t going to raise his head, not for a few minutes. He was going to wait and make certain. He lay there, gripping the derringer in his hand, the slingshot’s usefulness finished.

He heard a shout from the west. He cautiously looked around the rump of his horse. It was Fisher Lee. He was riding toward Longarm swinging his hat in the air and yelling.

Slowly Longarm sat up. Where there had once been a dilapidated two-story ranch house-turned-shack, there was not much of anything except a lot of scattered boards and a few bodies that he could see. Several horses were running around loose behind where the structure had been. There had obviously been a corral behind the house, and now the horses had been released. He wondered if any of them had been hurt.

Longarm slowly stood up and put the derringer in his pocket. It didn’t seem to be of much use. He looked to his right as Fisher came skidding up, still whooping and yelling. Fisher had a big smile on his face. He pulled his horse to a stop and said, “Well, Longarm, you’ve finally made as big a bang as you’ve been trying to do all your life. Hot damn, that was the damnedest thing that I’ve ever seen in my life. Did you know that the first valentine of yours went right through the front door? I know you didn’t aim, I know you were blind lucky like you were playing poker with me last night, but that thing went right through the front door. The roof lifted clean off that place. I can tell you right now, you wasted that second one. If there had been a swinging dick left standing in there, he’d have had wings and a halo, I can promise you that.”

Longarm said, “Well, Fish, for some reason, I didn’t want to waste the time taking a good look. Things had been a mite warm around here up until the time you showed up, so I figured that I better get that second one in there before it went off in my hand.”

Fisher said, “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time something went off in your hand.”

Longarm came around his horse and said, “Speak for yourself, you sonofabitch. Look here, Fisher. They killed my damn horse. I paid three hundred dollars for that horse and it was a good one, too.”

Fisher jerked his head westward. “They fooled us Longarm. That one with the scar on his jaw, that wasn’t Rufus after all. It was a cousin of theirs by the name of Jeremiah.”

“How come he told you?”

“I think he thought it was funny. He was telling me what all they were going to do to you.”

“You didn’t help him talk any?”

“Yeah, well, along toward the end I did.”

“He still alive?”

“He might be.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s tied to a tree.”

Longarm shook his head and laughed ruefully. “They double-dealt us in both cases. That one I thought was Clem, that wasn’t Clem, it was their half-brother Virgil. They shot him, he’s laying over there. I grabbed him and got my derringer in his back and was trying to make a get-away, thinking I had Clem and that I was safe, and they up and shot the sonofabitch. What do you think about that?”

Fisher looked thoughtfully at the remains of the old ranch building. “I think their double-dealing days are over with, Longarm. I think this country is now rid of the Gallaghers once and for all.”

Longarm said, “Yeah, but it took long enough, didn’t it? How many people did they kill and how much money did they steal and how many horses and cattle did they rustle? Hell, Fisher, I can’t blame you for not wanting to be a lawman. We don’t do a very good job sometimes.”

Fisher said, “Oh, cut out that horseshit. You know better than that. You just did a hell of a job and you know it.”

They were standing there, fifty yards away from the destroyed building. Longarm said, “You know I owe you my life, don’t you?”

“We going to start talking like that? About who owes who what? We’d have to go back a long time to figure out who saved who last.”

“Nevertheless, I was a cooked goose until you laid down that distracting fire. You know, that wasn’t real bright, Fish. There were five rifles firing from that shack, and there were windows on the side that you were on and you were as exposed as hell. The only thing that you done was left your horse back a little. How come you had that much sense?”

Fish said, “I wasn’t planning on homesteading that particular ground that I was laying on. As soon as I got off a few shots and got you some relief, I was getting out of there. You could either take advantage of it or not, but I wasn’t going to stay there.”

Longarm chuckled. “Well, I reckon that we ought to go up and see what there is to see, but before we do, I want to make mention of something. There is a large sum of rewards due on the Gallaghers. I’m going to certify them as killed. Most of the rewards, obviously, are dead or alive. As a deputy U.S. marshal, I am going to put you in for those rewards.”

Fisher said, “That ain’t quite the straight, is it, Longarm? I didn’t kill or capture any of them.”

Longarm answered, “As far as I am concerned, you killed Clem and Rufus with rifle power into that shack.”

Fisher looked at him with rounded eyes. “You know, you’re probably talking about a pretty good piece of change. There’s been rewards laid up for these boys back when I was a lawman.”

“I would reckon it to be around five or ten thousand dollars all told.”

“Longarm, you’d better think about this.”

“I don’t have to think about it, Fish. I’d be rotting in the sun by now or else in their hands if you hadn’t done what you did. The only thing that I ask is that when you collect the money, I want the three hundred dollars back for my horse that they killed. Bastards!”

Fish said, “Longarm, you are the strangest thing that I’ve ever seen. I think you’re about half crazy.”

“You have to be. Well, come on and let’s walk up there and take a look at the damage. I hate to look at men that’s been blown apart, but I think that’s what we’re going to find. Damn, that stuff is powerful!”

“Yeah, but ain’t you powerful glad you had it?”

“it turned the trick, there ain’t no question about it. I think we’ll have good news to give Simmons. I think he can build his railroad now and ship his ore.”

“Deputy Marshal, you done good, but you still can’t beat me playing poker.”

“Aw, hell, Fisher. Just because you quit your job, you automatically think that you’re a professional poker player. You ain’t no better poker player now than when you were a sheriff.”

“You just wait until we get back to Taos. I’ll play you some heads-up poker when there ain’t no heat on and we’ll see how well you play. Hell, I was distracted, that’s the only way you beat me. You sitting over there with God knows how much explosives and expecting a man to play cards.”

They were walking slowly toward the shack. Longarm stopped once to pick up his revolver. He said, “Look at this. Dust up the barrel, dust in the cylinder. My God, it’ll take me an hour and a half to clean this revolver.”

Fisher said, “Well, that’s better than having dust up your nose and dust up your mouth and dust up your ass. That’s what buried people get.”

“Fisher, you’re an irreverent sonofabitch, did you know that?”

They continued walking toward the shack. From what he was catching glimpses of, Longarm knew that he really didn’t want to look at the results of his work.

They rounded up most of the horses. A few they had to shoot. Longarm picked out the best of the lot to make the ride back to Springer. He chose a big bay mare that seemed mannerly enough and reined fairly well, although the horse was not trained to his standards. He insisted on getting his own shot-up saddle from his own dead horse, even though the saddle was nearly shot to pieces. He said, “Listen, I’ll carry this back to Denver with me. This saddletree was made especially for me to fit my butt. I’ll take it back to the saddle maker that’s been making saddles for me for twenty years and get some new leather put back on it. Those sonofabitches are not going to kill my horse and ruin my saddle at the same time. Do you realize they were trying to kill me, kill my horse, and ruin my saddle? Damn, that’s enough to make anybody angry.”

He found his carbine full of sand. That made him angry all over again, but in the end, looking at the whole picture, he had to admit to Fisher that he was pretty pleased with the way things had turned out.

They left the bodies and the parts of bodies just as they lay. They went through enough billfolds to discover that they had indeed killed the last two of the Gallagher brothers. Longarm took along their personal effects to prove that it was true.

He said, “I think we can ask Eugene to send a crew out to collect these remains. I think they’ll be glad to know that they can build their railroad now without getting any more men hurt, so they ought to be willing to do it. Anyway, we ain’t going to.”

They collected four loose horses and drove them ahead of them as they headed back to Springer. On the way, they stopped to take Jeremiah into custody. He was considerably shocked to learn that the Gallaghers’ plan hadn’t worked and that he was headed for a federal prison.

Fisher said, “I probably should have killed the sonofabitch. He ain’t got no idea what’s in store for him at the federal prison.”

Longarm grinned. “Are you trying to talk him into running, Fish?”

Jeremiah didn’t think that any of the talk was funny. He was riding with his hands tied to the saddlehorn, on lead, stripped of his hat, his boots, and his shirt. Fisher said, “I thought the boy might have a more difficult time traveling if he wasn’t carrying quite so many clothes.”

Longarm said, “That was damned thoughtful of you.”

It was a long ride to Springer, longer than Longarm had remembered taking when they came out, but they finally arrived around ten that night. He put Jeremiah in the jail with the local sheriff, and then sought out Eugene to get accommodations for himself and for Fisher for the night.

The young foreman was ecstatic at the news, and he couldn’t seem to do enough to make Longarm and Fisher comfortable. Even at that late hour, he rousted out a cook to make them a meal and insisted that they stay in the mining camp guest facilities rather than go to a hotel. He said, “We can beat any hotel in this town all hollow. What time will you be wanting to go back tomorrow, Marshal? Or if you’d like, I can put a special train on tonight and send you on back to Taos.”

Longarm said wearily, “No, thank you, Eugene. Tomorrow around ten o’clock will suit me fine. I’m not in a rush. To tell you the truth, I’m plain bone-tired. I’d like to have a good supper, some whiskey, and sleep. Then I’d like to have a good breakfast, get on the train, and go on back, and I believe Mister Fisher Lee here concurs with me. He, by the way, is the real hero of the moment.”

Fisher said, “Aw, you’re just saying that because it’s true, Longarm.”

Longarm looked at him and shook his head. “Lord, I wish I didn’t owe you so much. Now I’m going to have to put up with your sarcasm and your bragging and your know-it-all attitude for the rest of my life.”

Fisher said, “Which, the way you’re going, ain’t going to be very long.”

Chapter 10

After a late breakfast of steak and eggs, Longarm and Fisher left on the mountain train headed for Taos. They left with the thanks of Eugene and his crew and all the members of the Springer branch of the Silverado Mining Company. Their gratitude was almost embarrassing. Two of the crew had even contrived to install chairs in the stock car so that they could ride with their horses in some comfort. Eugene had, somewhere, discovered two quarts of brandy, which he gave Longarm as they were on the way out.

As the train chuffed its way out and started up into the mountains, Longarm said, “Wow, I’ve got to say, Fish, I’m glad that’s over. If I’ve never got to see another drop of nitroglycerin the rest of my life, I will be just as happy. You know, it’s a hell of a situation when a man is more afraid of his own weapons than he is of his enemy.”

Fisher asked, “Are you just now figuring that out?”

The train wound slowly over the mountains, laboring over the high passes, until it got up above the altitude where it could begin its descent into the valley where Taos was located. After that, it was a swift trip. As they rolled along, swaying and rocking, Longarm thought of Lily Gail and wondered where she would have fled to. He had plans for her that she didn’t know about. He imagined that she was going to be hard to find, but she would turn up sooner or later. After all, they had unfinished business. Fisher had seen to that with his untimely knock on the door.

Longarm felt stiff and sore. He didn’t know if it was the result of the riding, climbing the butte, riding the uncomfortable train, or spending about three weeks behind his dead horse with every muscle tensed while bullets sailed over his head and the nitroglycerin percolated under his chest. He figured maybe the time behind his horse when he was trying to draw himself up into as small a parcel as possible might have caused the aches and pains. He figured he was not getting any younger, and such ventures as he had gone through weren’t slowing down the aging process one bit.

They pulled into the yard at the mining company in Taos, and Longarm and Fisher got down while their horses were unloaded. He didn’t know what he was going to do with the bay mare, but he figured it was his to do with as he saw fit. He and Fisher split up at the rail yard, Fisher to go to his hotel, and Longarm to go see Simmons and give him a report and thank him for all the support that the mining company had given. He left Fisher with the understanding that he would see him sometime after lunch. Fisher said, “I want a bath, another meal, maybe some sleep, and then maybe I’ll be fit company.”

“Well, the bath and the meal will help, but I doubt if it will help enough. I feel like a bath myself, even though we had one last night at the railroad place in Springer. I could use a clean shirt and some clean jeans.”

“Well, I’ll see you later then.” With that, Fisher mounted his horse and rode off while Longarm stepped across the tracks, leading the bay mare in the direction of Simmons’s office. The distance was such that he normally would have gone on horseback, but he didn’t much feel like riding the Gallaghers’ horse, and besides, it felt good to stretch his legs after the cramped ride through the mountains. His mood should have been exalted. To have finally finished off the Gallaghers should have been perhaps as big an accomplishment as he had recorded to date. But something was lacking, and he rather suspected that something was the fact that he had caught them by a fluke, that if he had not gone on leave he would not have been where they could fall into his hands. But in poker, as in life, there was just no substitute for luck. What he supposed had made him the most tired was the pure fear of handling the liquid lightning. Now that it was over, he could look back and realize the chance that he had taken dealing with such a dangerous cargo with so little knowledge. He was frankly amazed that Simmons had allowed him to have it. In fact, he considered recommending to the mining engineer that in the future he be more careful who he allowed to lay hands on such undependable goods. It brought a shudder up his back as he recollected how he had transported such a commodity, how he had handled it, and how he had actually shot it with a slingshot. Well, he thought, this was one chapter in his life that should not be bandied about and become general gossip or part of the Longarm legend of tomfoolery. For that reason, he had great hopes that somehow the story would not get back to Billy Vail. Of course, he knew that somehow Billy would hear that he’d had a hand in the demise of the Gallagher brothers, but if it was possible, he was going to take every measure to make sure that Billy did not have new material with which to spur him about the head and shoulders.

As he opened the door to the office, he could tell that Eugene must have wired on ahead. The clerk immediately jumped up and ran into Simmons’s office and the mining engineer came out immediately. He came forward and shook Longarm’s hand over and over, telling him how grateful the mining company was for his help. They went in to the engineer’s office, and Simmons proposed a toast of an elegant brandy, which Longarm was glad to get, not for the sake of the toast but for the sake of the smooth, relaxing liquor.

Simmons was going on and on about the amazing feat that Longarm had pulled off. Finally, Longarm could stand it no longer. He said, “Mister Simmons, as a law officer, I’ve got to warn you about something.”

Simmons looked up at him alertly and said, “Yes, Marshal, what would that be?”

Longarm said, “In the future, I think you ought to be more careful about who you let lay hands on that nitro.”

Simmons looked puzzled. “But I gave it only to you, no one else.”

“That’s my point, Mister Simmons. What the hell do I know about nitroglycerin? It could have gotten me and a lot of other people killed. I’m not responsible enough to be handling that kind of stuff.”

Simmons’s mouth fell open. He said, “Well, Marshal, you must understand that when a federal marshal requests something to be used in the furtherance of justice, this company and myself personally have no choice but to grant that wish. We are here under the auspices of the United States Mining Commission, who could revoke our claim at any time.”

Longarm said, “Never mind that. I just want you to be a little more careful. Next time I come in here and ask you to give me some nitroglycerin, don’t you do it. My nerves will never be the same after this one episode. That stuff is dangerous, Mister Simmons.”

Simmons studied Longarm in amazement. “Excuse me, Marshall,” he said, “do you not recollect that I gave you quite a lecture on nitro and warned you and rewarned you that transporting such an explosive was both dangerous and unwise?”

“Then you should have followed your advice and kept it the hell out of my hands.”

Simmons finally had to smile. “Well, from what I hear, Marshal, you handled it properly, you handled it accurately, and you handled it effectively. I’d have to say that if your services were available as a demolition man, I wouldn’t hesitate to put you to work.”

Longarm took a quick hard slug of the brandy. “Mister Simmons, don’t say things like that, even in jest. Sir, I today have realized the risks that I took and I have to tell you in all seriousness that right now, I’m more scared than I’ve ever been before in my life.”

Simmons laughed. “I know how you feel, Marshal. There have been several times in my career when I have taken chances with dynamite or nitro and looked back later and wondered how I managed to stay in one piece. It is very easy to tell a man how very dangerous that stuff is, how volatile it is, but until a man has seen for himself what destruction it can cause, he doesn’t really understand what he’s told. I want you to know that if there is ever anything that this mining company can do for you personally, all you have to do is ask.”

Longarm said, “There is one thing that you can do for me, Mister Simmons.”

“Name it and you’ve got it.”

Longarm said, “Hitched out in front of your office with my saddle on it is a horse that belonged to the Gallaghers. That one and four others that we drove on ahead and the one man in jail is all that is left of them. I don’t want that horse, but I can’t just turn her loose. Would the mining company take that horse off my hands? By rights, you have suffered great damage at the hands of the Gallaghers, and I could easily and quite willingly turn this horse over to you as partial reparation for the damage they’ve done to you. We left the other horses with Eugene in Springer.

Simmons said, “Why are you riding a Gallagher horse? Where is yours, Marshal?”

Longarm looked grim. “The bastards shot it. It happened that the horse was between me and them, so they shot the horse to get to me. It was a damn good horse that I paid three hundred dollars for a couple of years ago, and he’d been a good using horse, and if anything makes me mad about this whole deal, it’s the loss of that horse.”

Simmons asked, “Marshal, as a general rule, what blooded horse or cross do you prefer?”

Longarm said, “I like a cross between a Morgan and a quarter horse or a quarter horse crossed with a thoroughbred.”

Simmons nodded. “All right, I’ll have your saddle taken off that horse and delivered to the hotel livery stable. We’ll take the horse and count it as partial compensation for the damage that we have suffered. Of course, most of that damage has been covered by the insurance company, but we’ll report it to them.”

Longarm said, getting up, “Well, Mister Simmons, I just wanted to let you know the final outcome. Now, I’m dead tired and I’m headed down to the hotel to get some clean clothes on and then step down to the barbershop to get a haircut. We were up all night last night, and then I hid behind a horse while people tried to cut my hair for me with their rifle bullets. That does take it out of a body.”

Once again, Simmons thanked Longarm and then escorted him to the door.

Longarm was standing in his hotel room, completely nude, about to rummage in his small valise and come out with a change of clothes and socks. He had a glass of Maryland whiskey in his hand, which he had been savoring, and he had taken the time to have a short wash-up out of the big washbasin that the hotel had provided. He was considering whether to shave himself or treat himself to a barbershop shave when he heard the sound of a key turning in the lock of his room’s door. He whirled instantly and stepped to the bedside table. He set the whiskey down and put his hand on the butt of his revolver, ready to draw it from the holster.

The door opened and Lily Gail stood there, wearing a very fetching yellow frock dress, cut low in the bodice so that her creamy white skin and the beginning of the swell of her bosom showed. She started as she saw Longarm and was almost, but not quite, able to keep the surprise out of her eyes. She said, stammering, “Why … why … why, Custis. Whatever are you doing here?”

He smiled at her. “I might ask you the same question, Lily Gail, but come in and shut the door behind you. You’re creating a draft.”

She stepped into the room and closed and locked the door behind her. She turned to face Longarm with about ten feet separating them. She said, “I didn’t expect you back …” She stopped. “I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

He smiled even more. “Yeah, I bet you didn’t.”

She said, trying to keep the bewilderment out of her eyes, “Didn’t ya’ll get together?”

“You mean me and the Gallaghers?”

“Why, yes. Isn’t that who you were going to see?”

“Yes, but it just didn’t come off, Lily Gail. We missed connections somewhere along the line. Somebody got the time and place wrong. They never showed up.”

A little of the concern left her face. She said, “Oh, well, that’s too bad, but I’m sure there’ll be another chance.”

He said, with a smile fixed on his face, “Yeah, there’s always another chance.”

She walked slowly toward him. The glint that he liked so much was back in her eyes. She said, “Oh, my. Look at you. Don’t you look perfect?” She came up, stood next to him, and reached down and began to fondle his member and his testicles. She said, “Oh, that’s so nice.”

With fingers that were trembling as they did when he handled the nitroglycerin, he began unbuttoning the convenient front of her dress. Because of the low cut, there weren’t so many buttons. In less than a minute, her dress had fallen to the floor. He backed her to the edge of the bed, and she sat down and leaned forward and took him in her mouth. He put his hands on her head and held on while she wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him back and forth into her mouth. After a few strokes, it was all he could do to hold himself back. For a second, she pulled her head away and looked up at him, running her plump tongue around her lips, and then took him back into her mouth. He could stand it for only a moment longer, and then he pulled away and pushed her back on the bed. He said, “Turn over and back up to me. Get on your hands and knees.” His voice was husky as his throat began to close and his breathing quickened. The blood was pounding in his ears. She turned slowly, bringing herself to the right height. He moved forward and his member went into her, almost as if it had a mind of its own. She was slick and warm and he leaned over her, reaching under and grasping each of her breasts as he began to pump into her. He could feel himself rising and could feel the thunder inside. He heard a loud gasping and realized it was coming from him before he exploded. He felt like his whole body was being sucked into her. The explosion lasted a long, long, long time.

When it was over, he collapsed on her back. Her arms gave and her legs spread and they lay flat on the bed. They remained that way for a long moment until he regained his breath. He rolled over and lay there staring at the ceiling.

She turned and hovered over him, kissing him on the mouth. She said, “There. Wasn’t that a nice welcome home.”

Still out of breath, he said, “Oh, my, Lily Gail. That really was.”

Then he heaved himself up. She said, “Where are you going?”

He said, “I’ve got to get dressed and you’d better get dressed. We’ve got to go out.”

She asked, “Oh, where are we going?”

He said, “Well, I may be going several different places but you’re going to jail. You’re under arrest.”

Longarm was having trouble getting her out of the room. She was saying, “But you can’t arrest me, Longarm. Not after what we just done, you can’t do it.”

“I am arresting you, Lily Gail. I’m arresting you for complicity in the attempted murder of a federal law officer. That’s officially. That’s a pretty serious charge, Lily Gail, and I don’t think that you’re going to enjoy federal prison, but that’s where you are going. This is the second time that you’ve nearly gotten me killed. The first time it was my fault. This time it was your fault. I’m not going to give you a chance at another try. Next time you might succeed.”

She put her hand to her mouth. She said, with a break in her voice, “But honey, how can you after what you just done to me?”

He said, “What I just did to you was what you tried to do to me, sending me out to meet with the Gallaghers. Only I enjoyed mine. I don’t think you’re going to enjoy yours.”

“How can you say that!”

“By the way, Rufus and Clem have gone to be with Vern and the rest of that sorry family.”

She said, “You don’t mean …”

He nodded. “Yes, Lily Gail. They are blowed-up suckers. Literally and figuratively. You have lost your soft touch.”

As if she hadn’t heard him, she said, trying to melt against him, “You can’t arrest me after what we just did. You love it too much.”

He said grimly, “That’s just the reason, Lily Gail. I’ve got to put you out of my reach. You’ve got a power over me that I don’t like. That thing that you’ve got between your legs is more dangerous than any gun I’ve ever been up against, so yes, I’m fixing to stick you in jail.”

She almost wailed. “But you can’t!”

He took her firmly by the arm and led her through the door. He said, “You watch me.”

Over her protests, he marched her firmly down the street to the sheriff’s jail. As they went, they created a wake of people turning to stare after them. Longarm had neglected to put on his badge, so it occurred to him that he appeared like a man dragging a woman somewhere against her will. He reached in his pocket and hooked his badge where it would be obvious.

They turned in at the jail. The outer office was empty except for one deputy. Longarm said, “I’m Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long out of the Denver office. This young woman is under arrest on a serious charge. I want you to hold her in a cell while I tend to some business. I’ve got to say adios to an old friend, pick up some tickets for the evening train, and then get my gear and saddle. I’ll be back in an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I want you to watch her, she’s pretty damn slippery.”

The young deputy had arisen from behind the desk when they came in. He stood there, openmouthed, staring first at Longarm’s badge and then at the much more appealing sight of Lily Gail Baxter. He stammered out, “You mean, you want me to put this … this … this young lady in a jail cell?”

“Preferably one with two locks.”

The young deputy said, “Well, yes, sir. If them are your orders, Marshal.”

“Them are my orders. What’s your name, son?”

“Clinton Watts, sir. I’m a new deputy here.”

Longarm said, “Well, Deputy Watts, you see to it. I’ll be back anywhere from an hour to two hours.”

With that, he turned on his heels and walked out of the door, first to find Fish, then to go to the railroad station, and then finally to pay his hotel bill and get the rest of his gear.

It was an easy parting for Fisher, for they would be seeing each other soon enough since Fisher had plans to be in Denver within the next couple of weeks. Longarm reassured him that he was going to put Fisher in for the reward money. He said, “Hell, Fisher. Somebody deserves it, and you damn sure rode into the eye of the storm and did your part. I wish like hell I could collect it.”

Fisher said, “We could split it.”

Longarm shook his head ruefully. “No, I can’t let myself do that, but I damn sure can collect three hundred of it for that horse. That makes me mad all over.”

“Well, you took that bay.”

“No, I gave that to Simmons. I didn’t like the thought of riding a Gallagher horse.”

Fisher shook his head and laughed. “Longarm, you’re as crazy as hell, do you know that?”

“So they keep telling me.”

After that, Longarm went to the train depot and bought two tickets for Denver. Since he didn’t have a horse, he bought chair coach tickets, though he hated riding in the coach, preferring to ride back in the stock car with his animal. He went back to the hotel and paid his reckoning for his stay there. Then there was nothing to do but sling his battered saddle over his shoulder, collect his valise, and with his carbine in one hand and his saddlebags over his shoulder, head out of the hotel and back down to the jail. He only had half an hour to catch the train since he and Fisher had spent more time talking than he had reckoned. He was somewhat surprised to see the young deputy emerging through the door that led back to the cell area. The deputy was buttoning his pants and buckling his belt.

Longarm suddenly had a sinking feeling. He said, “Deputy Watts, fetch out my prisoner. I’m ready to go.”

The young man’s face went scarlet. He said stammering, “Uh … sir … uh … Marshal. She ain’t here.”

Longarm took a few steps toward the deputy. “What the hell do you mean, she ain’t here? Where is she?”

The deputy cut his eyes back and forth. “Well, the truth of the matter is, sir, the fact of the business is … well, she got loose from me just now and just ran out of here. I’m the only one on duty and I’m not supposed to leave the office.”

Longarm almost slapped him. “Boy, don’t come out from back there licking cream off your whiskers and tell me that you’ve been branding cattle. I know exactly how she got out of here. Deputy, you’re under arrest.”

The young deputy took a step backwards. He said, “What?”

“That’s right. You’re under arrest for interference with a federal officer in pursuit of his duty. Trust me, young man, that’s a serious offense. Hand me your side arm.”

The deputy swallowed. He said, “Sir, I ain’t got one. You ain’t supposed to go back to the cells with a gun.”

“Then it’s just as well. Open that damn door behind you.” With the door open, Longarm marched the deputy back into an empty cell before he slammed the door and stood there holding the keys. He said, “You are under arrest. I don’t know how long I will be gone, a day, two days, two weeks, I don’t know. You damn well better be in this cell when I get back or else I’ll hunt you all over the world because I don’t ever let anyone get away from me. Do you understand that? Your next stop is going to be about five minutes in a federal court and then you’re going to be doing about ten years at Leavenworth if you get out of this cell. Understand?”

The deputy was white-faced. He said, “Marshal, please. it was more than I could take.”

Longarm said dryly, “Don’t tell me about her, son, I know all about her. I’m telling you once again, Deputy, that you better be in this cell when I get back.”

“What if the sheriff lets me out?”

“Then tell the sheriff that I’m liable to arrest him.”

The deputy swallowed and said, “Yes, sir.”

Longarm turned around, walked out of the cell block and through the door, pitched the keys to the cells onto a handy desk, and then left the office. He was almost, but not quite, smiling. He wondered how long the deputy would stay in the cell. Probably a couple of days at least. He sighed. You had to hand it to Lily Gail. She was a handful and just as slippery as anything he had ever gotten his hands on.

He didn’t have time to dwell on such matters. He had a train to catch. He shouldered his gear and hurried out the door and down to the depot, where he could hear the train blowing the five-minute warning.

It was three days after Longarm got back to Denver before he went into the office. He spent the time resting at his boardinghouse, drinking at his favorite saloon, playing at some cards, and paying court to a young widowed dressmaker, trying to convince her that a man and a woman didn’t necessarily have to be married to enjoy each other’s company to its fullest extent. He still hadn’t convinced her.

On the fourth morning, he went to the Federal Building, walked into Billy Vail’s office, and flopped down. His silver-haired boss tried to look astonished. He said, “Why, Longarm. What in hell are you doing back here?” He looked at a calendar. “It’s only been thirteen or fourteen days of your thirty-day leave. What are you doing here?”

He knew Billy Vail already was aware of what had happened. He said, “I couldn’t take no more leave time. It was wearing me out, so I figured that I had to come back to work so that I could get some rest.”

“Well, are you officially reporting back to duty?”

“Not today, maybe tomorrow.”

Billy Vail said, “Well, I just want to get the straight of it. You never can tell when I might be needing an extra hand. Things have been pretty quiet around here, but you never can tell when they might blow up.”

Longarm looked at him suspiciously, but there was nothing in his face to go on, so he let it pass.

Longarm said, “Well, I’m glad to hear that, Billy. I wouldn’t want anything getting you upset.”

Billy said, “I had some good news about the Gallaghers. Sounds like you did a dynamite job.”

Longarm looked at him again. He said, “A what?”

Billy said, “I meant just a real fine job. Sounds like you were a real firecracker down there tending to the Gallaghers. I know that everybody is mighty glad and grateful for the work you done. I hear that you had a little help from a gentleman named Fisher Lee. That’s an old friend of yours, ain’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Guess he’ll be claiming the reward money with you not being able to.”

“Yeah.” Longarm got up. “I just stopped by for a moment to let you know that I was back in town. I’ll probably be back to work tomorrow.” He started for the door.

Billy Vail said, “Oh, by the way. An odd situation happened.”

“What was that?”

“The Silverado Mining Company sent a really fine horse up here for you. Must have been a thousand-dollar horse, part thoroughbred, part quarter horse. Prettiest horse that I’ve ever seen.”

Longarm turned back quickly. “They did?”

“Yeah, and there was a letter that came with it from a Mister Simmons, the manager of their operations there at Taos. He said they wanted to give you that horse in gratitude for what you did for them.”

“Well, where’s the horse?”

Billy Vail attempted to look shocked. “Why, he’s in government custody, Longarm. You know that you can’t accept gifts in your official capacity as a deputy United States marshal.”

Longarm said, “But them damn Gallaghers killed my horse. I’m out a horse.”

“Was that one of your personal horses?”

“Of course it was. You know that I don’t ride those damn hides that we’re supposed to requisition from the army.”

Billy Vail shook his head. “That’s too bad, Longarm. You shouldn’t have been using your own personal horse in a dangerous situation like that.”

“Well, how come I can’t have that horse they sent me to replace the one I lost? Besides that, I gave them one of the Gallagher horses.”

Billy Vail nodded. “That was all explained in the letter from Mister Simmons, and I feel really bad about the fact that you can’t have this horse. It’s truly a fine horse, a four-year-old gelding, a wonderful-looking animal.”

Longarm gave him a disgusted look. “Aw, Billy, can’t you bend the rules a little bit? Hell, this is the worst damn vacation I’ve ever had. I wound up working the biggest part of it, lost a good horse, nearly got myself killed. Looks like you could bend the rules a little.”

Longarm did not expect compliments for what he had done to the Gallagher gang. As Billy would have said, “Hell, that’s just part of your job. That’s what you get paid for. Do you want pay and compliments both?” So Longarm knew better than to mention busting up the worst gang of cutthroats and crooks that the Southwest had ever seen, but he did think that he should have the horse to replace the one that he had lost.

Billy Vail said, “I know that you worked on your vacation and I know what you done. It was all in that letter that I received from Mister Simmons, and I hate it that you can’t have that horse because I have the most wonderful name for it. Want to hear it?”

“Hell, no. What the hell do I care what the name of the horse is if I can’t have it? Where is the horse anyway?”

“Well, I don’t know, Longarm. It’s the property of the United States Government, so I turned it over to the Quartermaster Corps.”

Longarm stared at him in amazement. “You turned over a fine animal like that to the damn Quartermaster Corps? Billy Vail, you can make me madder than anyone that I’ve ever known before in my life. I thought I was mad before I came into this office, but now I am really angry.” Longarm got to his feet and started for the door.

Behind him, Billy Vail said sweetly, “Wait a minute, Longarm. Don’t you want to know the name that I picked out for the horse?”

Longarm took hold of the knob of the door. He said, “No.”

“Well, I’m going to tell you anyway because it’s perfect, it suits YOU.”

Longarm turned and gave him a look. “All right, what?”

Billy Vail said, “Nitroglycerin. Fits you to a T. Explosive.”

Longarm didn’t bother to answer. His face reddened and his hand shook. He said, “Billy Vail, you are the worst sonofabitch that I’ve ever met in my life.” Then he went through the door, started to close it, changed his mind, and stuck his head back in. He said, “I take that back, Billy Vail. You ain’t the worst sonofabitch I’ve ever met because I ain’t met every sonofabitch yet. You’re the worst sonofabitch period.”

With that, Longarm slammed the door as hard as he could, making the glass shiver. He wished it had broken.

Now there was nothing left to do but walk on out of the building and go find the saloon and a poker game and perhaps, tonight, make better progress with the lady dressmaker. Maybe he could find a loose thread on her somewhere, one that he could unravel, and get after it. He doubted it, though, the way his luck was running.

He took no great excitement in bringing the Gallaghers to book because about that he felt the same way as Billy Vail. It was his job. If a man did his job well and got paid, it was a standoff, a square deal, and that was all he had ever looked for in life. He was a little rank that day, but he knew that the next day he’d be halfway hoping that Billy Vail would summon him to the office and say, “Now, Longarm, we’ve got some trouble down in Texas and I reckon you’re the only man for the job.”

And he’d say, “Billy, you are full of it. There’s half a dozen other deputies. Send one of them.”

But of course, in the end, he would go because that was his job. All he wondered was how long it would take for the nitroglycerin business to blow over.