'Marshal!' the maid cried.
Longarm turned. 'What?'
'What am I to do now?'
'Clean and care for the house as usual,' Longarm told the frightened woman. 'Senora Ortega and Maria Escobar will return very soon.'
The maid crossed herself and looked exceedingly happy at this news. Longarm was happy as well.
'Haggerty will kill me if he can,' Ortega grated through clenched teeth. 'And he'll kill you too.'
'He may try,' Longarm said, 'but he won't succeed.'
When Longarm returned to the prison wagon with Ortega, the women prisoners stared through the bars of their wagon at Ortega with great curiosity.
'What are we going to do with him?' Putterman demanded.
'He's a prisoner,' Longarm said, 'so we'll put him in the wagon.'
'With all those women?' Hawkins asked, jaw dropping.
'He's hardly in any shape to take advantage of them.' Longarm reminded the young deputy.
'It isn't him that I was thinking about doin' the abusin',' Hawkins said. 'They're the ones that are going to have the fun with the poor sumbitch.'
Longarm shrugged his shoulders and unlocked the door of the prison wagon. When Ortega realized the company he was going to be forced to keep, the pain on his evil face gave way to unbridled panic.
'No, please! Do not put me in there with those whores! I beg you.'
'Shouldn't have called them that,' Longarm said as the ten women cursed an spat at the Mexican. 'I got a feeling that was a big mistake.'
Ortega renewed his struggles with even more desperation, but all his efforts were to no avail as Longarm forced him into the prison wagon. The women crowded around prodding and poking the terrified Mexican. When Ortega's screams took on a higher pitch, Longarm conceded that he might have made a poor decision. However, he did not think that the women would actually kill Ortega, though some of them were certainly capable of the act.
'Let's go,' Longarm said, climbing back onto the roof of the wagon.
'Your new prisoner may be dead by the time we reach Prescott,' Putterman said.
'Too bad,' Longarm replied, wondering again about a snake who'd had a hand in the murder of his own brother.
CHAPTER 20
It would have been a pleasant enough journey to Prescott if Juan Ortega had not kept screaming for mercy. Longarm lay stretched out and dozing on his bedroll until Putterman finally pulled the prison wagon to a halt at the edge of town.
'Well, Marshal Long, how do you want to handle this?' the prison supervisor asked.
Longarm sat up and rubbed his eyes, wishing he'd lately gotten more sleep. He yawned and slowly swung his long legs over the side of the wagon.
'Might as well just roll on in and pull up in front of Marshal Haggerty's office. I don't expect he'll try and run.'
'What if he decides to shoot it out?' Hawkins asked.
'That's his choice.'
'What the kid is really asking,' Putterman said with more than a trace of exasperation, 'is are we going to be in the line of fire?'
'Worried?'
'Damn right!' Putterman exclaimed. 'People get killed all the time by stray bullets. Besides, we're responsible for these women.'
'Somehow,' Longarm said cryptically, 'I don't think it's the prisoners that you're really worried about.'
Putterman didn't like to hear that because it was the truth. Longarm said, 'Why don't you just pull up at the livery and make arrangements for the team? They're going to need some rest.'
'What are we supposed to do with the women and that Ortega fella, providing he's still alive?'
Longarm leaned far over and peered into the wagon. He could see Ortega lying stretched out on the floor and he was a real mess. The women had bloodied his face and Ortega's shirt and pants were torn open. Longarm didn't even want to think about what had happened to his prisoner because it might cause him to start feeling very guilty.
'All right,' Longarm said a few minutes later when the wagon came to a stop. 'I'll go arrest Marshal Haggerty and we can cram everyone in his two jail cells.'
'That'll be cozy,' Hawkins said.
'Very cozy,' Longarm agreed, climbing down and checking his six-gun.
'If the marshal kills you first,' Putterman called, 'I'm not waiting around. I'll pull out for Colorado without you!'
