“All right, so how else does he figure to double-cross her?”
“Like I just told you, with a sudden necktie party! He won’t be taking part in it, of course. His plan is to be over at the redhead’s, trying to steal a kiss or better, when all of a sudden, out of the night…”
“I got you. ‘Some of the boys got drunk and riled up about that running iron, Miss Kim, and I’m pure sorry as all hell about the way his neck got all stretched out Of shape like that.’”
“That’s one thing they’re considering. Another is having him get shot trying to escape. Either way, it figures to happen soon.”
“They say anything about me and the other lawmen?”
“Sure. They don’t figure three big men and a dwarf can stop ‘em. I reckon you’re the one they’re calling a dwarf. Timberline told ‘em not to shoot none of us, ‘less we try to stop the fun.”
Longarm stopped at the store front and leaned against a post as the midget put a tiny boot up on the planks to wait for his next words.
Longarm mused, half-aloud, “The Mountie would fight for sure and go down shooting. Walthers might try, and get hurt…”
“You and me know better, right?”
“Against at least fifty armed drunks? You’re sure you got it right, though? Timberline’s got the odds right, but there ain’t much that can be said about his thinking. Hell, he doesn’t have to kill the prisoner. They could just let him go with an hour’s head start and you, me, the others would be hightailing it out of the valley after him. They’d never see any of us again and Timberline could go back to courting his widow woman. Maybe consoling her on their mutual misfortune.”
“I never said he was bright. I only told you what he planned.”
“You reckon he might see it, if it was pointed out to him?”
“He might. Then again, knowing his play was uncovered, he might make his move more sudden. There’s over fifty men in and around town this very moment.”
“I get the picture. When were they planning to murder the poor jasper?”
“Late tonight. The redhead’s gone home in a huff, saying the way everybody’s drinking and carrying on over the funeral is disgusting, which I’ll allow it is. Timberline figures to ride over to her spread, maybe playing his guitar or something as stupid, just so he’s not there when they string the boy up. Later, of course, nobody will remember just who done the stringing, the rest of us will likely ride off and…”
“All right, what’s your plan, Cedric?”
“We in this together? You’ll split us in?”
“Cedric, I’m tempted as hell to lie to you, considering the choices I got, but you’re too smart to think I can divide a reward I’m not allowed to accept.”
“Hell, who cares about the paper on that pissant, Cotton Younger? It’s Jesse James that me and Mabel’s out to collect on! He knows where the James boys are!”
“You figure I’d let you get it out of him, Apache style?”
“Don’t have to. Already made the deal. Like I said, us little folks can get into the damndest nooks and crannies.”
“You talked to the prisoner in the jail?”
“Sure. Got under the floor last night and we jawed a while through a knothole. He don’t like the idea of getting lynched all that much, so I convinced him his only way out of it was to make a deal. His life in exchange for the present address of Frank or Jesse. He says he don’t know where Frank is, but that he knows how to get to Jesse. Half a loaf is better than none, I always say.”
“Where’d he say Cousin Jesse was?”
“He didn’t. Said he’d tell us once he was clear of Crooked Lance and crazy cowboys with ropes. You think I’d bother to spring the rascal if I knew?”
Longarm took out a cheroot and lit it, running the conversation through his mind again to see where the yarn didn’t hold together. He knew the little bounty hunter would lie when it was in his favor, but what he said made sense. Longarm nodded and said, “All right, we get him out right after sundown and make a run for it. You’d better head out early With Mabel and your buckboard. I’ll join you at the first pass and we’ll hole up somewhere. You’ll get your talk with Cotton Younger and then we split up. They’ll probably come boiling up out of this valley like hornets when they find him gone, but you and your woman will be riding into Bitter Creek innocent, and I know my way around in the woods at night.”
“Was you born that stupid or did a cow step on your head, Longarm?”
“You know a better way?”
“Of course. I got a key to the jailhouse, damn it!”
“You stole Pop Wade’s key? How come he ain’t missed it yet?”
“Because I never stole it, big brain! I had Mabel jaw with the guards whilst I took a beeswax impression, standing damn near under Pop as he stared down the front of Mabel’s dress. I got some tools in my valise, and once I had the impression…”
“I know how you make a duplicate key, damn it. I’ll allow it makes it a mite easier, but not much. We still got to get you and your woman out safe while I bang the guards’ heads together some.”
“Mabel’s going to take care of the guards for us.”
“Both of ‘em at once?”
“Don’t be nasty, damn it. Part of their play is to keep the drinking and whooping going on all afternoon and
