office building as they passed it. He retrieved his Colt from the constable’s pocket and cracked open the sliding panel behind the hackman’s head.
“You can pull up here long enough for me to get out,” he told the driver. “Then the officer wants to go on out Front to—what’s that big street, quite a ways on east?”
“You must mean Division Street,” the hackie said. “It’s about a mile further on up Front Street.”
“That’s the one,” Longarm agreed. “You just go right along, and then go out Division Street.”
“What about my fare?” the driver asked, reining up.
“You heard what the officer said. This is police business.”
Longarm closed the panel and jumped out of the hack then started back to the federal building in a brisk walk. Before he turned off the sidewalk into the building where Andrew Gower’s office was located, he looked over his shoulder. The hack was moving on along Front Street at a good clip. Longarm hoped the constable wouldn’t succeed in attracting the hackman’s attention too soon. He closed the door of the federal building behind him and started down the short corridor to Gower’s office.
From the anteroom of the chief marshal’s office, Longarm could see Gower at his desk, absorbed in reading a letter. He pushed past the protesting clerk and went in, closing the door behind him.
Gower looked up from the letter. “Long! What in the hell are you doing in Fort Smith?”
“I figured you’d better know what’s in the wind, so you can get ready to move when the time comes.”
“Damn it, you’re supposed to be at Younger’s Bend, getting the evidence I need to clean things up around here.”
“I was, until yesterday.”
“You sure didn’t spend a lot of time there. Let’s see was it just a week ago you left Fort Smith?”
“More or less. I’ll be going back right away, if you can fix things up with the constabulary’s force so I can get out of town without them throwing me in jail.”
“Jail? Why would they want to do that?”
“Well, it’s sort of a long story.”
Gower sighed. “I guess I’ve got time to listen to it. Sit down, Long.” He took out his sack of Bull Durham and began rolling a cigarette. Longarm fished out a cheroot and lighted it, waiting until Gower was ready for him to start. The chief marshal touched a match to the twisted tip of his cigarette and said, “All right. Billy Vail warned me you’d be into one thing right after another. What did you do to get crossways with the local constables?”
“Well, for one thing, I took a pistol and a scattergun away from one of them, down at the Union Depot a little while ago. I don’t imagine they’ll let that pass by without taking notice.”
“Maybe I can get the chief constable to smooth things down. What’s the name of this man you disarmed?”
“We didn’t exactly trade introductions. If you want me to ask him, I’ll have to chase down the hack that’s taking him out of town.”
Gower found the patience to ask, “Why did you have to take his weapons away?”
“Well, I didn’t want him to toss me in jail for murder, and put you to all the trouble of getting me out. Figured it’d be better to stay out in the first place.”
“Murder!” Gower exploded. “Who got killed?”
“One of the Frisco’s yard bulls. The constable mentioned that his name was Castell.”
Gower stared at Longarm. Then, in a voice that he was obviously keeping calm with a great deal of effort, said, “Long, I think you’d better start at the beginning and tell me everything that happened.”
Longarm gave the chief marshal a condensed version of what had taken place from the time of his arrival at Younger’s Bend. When he’d finished, Gower was staring at him across the desk, wordless and wide-eyed.
“Billy Vail said you had your own ways of doing things,” the chief marshal said thoughtfully. “It seems to me you’ve pretty well crippled Floyd Sharpless and his bunch. I remember him, we’ve had fliers on him. He’s wanted for a dozen different jobs. I can’t quite place Steed, and the boy seems like a greenhorn doing his best to get started the wrong way.”
“I’d say it’s Bobby’s first big job,” Longarm agreed. “He’s the only one of the three I don’t feel right about.”
“Don’t waste any sympathy on him, Long. He’s bad to begin with, or he wouldn’t be running with Sharpless and Steed.”
“I guess. There’s a lot left for me to do, though. I got to dig out the names you want, the lawmen on Belle Starr’s payoff list. So, as soon as you can square up things with the constables here, I’ll be riding back out to Younger’s Bend.”
“I suppose you’ll have to,” Gower said after a moment’s consideration. “And you’ll have to find away to get word to me about this bank holdup they’re planning. Where and when, and anything else.”
Longarm shook his head. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know myself. Belle’s cagey. She was talking about Fort Smith, but I let her see that didn’t take me in. Then she went on to tell about big banks in little towns close to the border.”
“I don’t suppose she mentioned any names?”
“Not Belle. And if I got her figured right, she won’t say where the job’s going to be until we set out to do it.”
“She’d take no chance of the word leaking out,” Gower said. “You’ll have to narrow it down, then, Long. I
