Longarm knew no train would be leaving within an hour, and that all the trails out of town would be in mighty good shape for tracking until that fresh surface got chewed up by other traffic, but he didn’t think he ought to point that out. He said, “That sounds fair. How do you propose we work it?”
“You let her go. As soon as she’s in the clear I’ll come up to your room and surrender. Deal?”
Longarm snorted in disgust and said, “I’d feel safer buying a gold brick from Soapy Smith. What’s to stop you from just running off with her, laughing like a jackass at the lawman foolish enough to even consider that?”
“You have my word as a man of Clan Costello. If you know anything at all about me you know my word is good. It may be true that one has to read the fine print when dealing with us satanic types, but it’s against my craftman’s code to just plain lie to the audience.”
Longarm had reservations about that. He’d heard more than one stage magician say the hat was empty just before he hauled a fool rabbit out of it. On the other hand, he only had a morals charge on the girl for certain, and wasn’t looking forward to explaining that part in court if her lawyer brought it up. He knew there was an outside chance the Great Costello’s word was worth a fart in a windstorm, and that having caught the redhead once there was always some hope of catching such an easy-to-notice suspect again. So he said, “I ought to have my head examined, but I’ll meet you halfway. You come up the stairs as high as you feel is safe. I’ll let the girl go and watch from my doorway. As she drops down the stairwell, you’d best come up, poco tiempo. For if you don’t, I can still chase her down four flights pretty good and I’m likely to be sore as hell at both of you, hear?”
The Great Costello hesitated, then asked, “What’s to prevent you from rushing the stairwell and nailing both of us?”
Longarm replied in an injured tone, “Now who’s doubting the word of a gent, and me a lawman instead of a damned old crook?”
The older man laughed dryly, and said, “All right. I can’t see any way that’s as safe for all concerned. Give me three or four minutes.” Then he hung up.
Longarm cradled the set at his end and told the redhead, “I reckon this is your lucky day, or night, whether you spend the rest of it pure or not.”
But as he freed her wrist and hauled her to her feet she pleaded, “Don’t do it, darling. I’m willing to do anything you say, anything, but they’ll hang my poor father for certain!”
“Oh, I dunno. They sure screwed up the last time. I don’t want you doing anything, honey. When I tell you to light out I want you to do so and, for old time’s sake, I want you to put the Mighty Mississippi betwixt us as fast as you can. They hardly ever send me back east, and you might be able to get a more honest job if you really try.”
Then, holding her firmly by the wrist with his left hand, he snuffed the lamp and led her through the darkness to the door. He cracked it open, didn’t get shot, and drew his .44 with his free hand as he studied the dimly lit and deserted hallway as far as the stairs. Then he told the girl, “All right. It’s about that time. Just start walking, not running, for the nearest exit. If I hear you running down them stairs I’ll be right behind you before you can hope to reach the bottom.”
She said, “Custis, he’s not really an evil man. It’s just that he got so tired of waiting to be recognized as the great stage illusionist he really is and-“
“Get going,” Longarm cut in, pushing her out into the hall with a pat on her sweet backside that made him feel sort of wistful. She hesitated, shrugged, and started walking, not looking back. He was glad. It hurt to have anything that nice leaving angry, even when you couldn’t see its face.
She got to the stairwell, stared down, then gave her red head a sort of willful fling and headed down until she was out of sight. Longarm waited a few seconds, then he growled, “All right, fool. All bets are off and why are we still standing here?”
Then another door, midway down the hall, opened all the way and the Great Costello stepped out, hands shoulder high, with a sheepish grin on his face.
Longarm stayed put as he said, “This sure is a pleasant surprise, old son. Just keep coming this way and we shall see what we shall see.”
As the rogue magician joined Longarm he asked, “Did you really think I had someone else in my room with a gun, at this late stage of our little game?”
Longarm hauled him inside, frisked him, shoved him down on the bed, and handcuffed Costello’s clubbed foot to the brass leg of the bed. When he straightened up and relit the lamp he said, “That might have fit within the exact wording of the deal we made. But offhand I’d say it’s more likely you asked for them extra moments to give the others time to move out.”
The Great Costello said, “You’d make a good illusionist, given a little training in the tricks of the trade.”
“You’ve taught me enough, for now. How come you wanted to set off all that dynamite in here, seeing you’ve been just across the hall all this time?”
“I just had my, uh, wife change our room to this floor, for a better view of El Paso, and you. It would have been stupid to try that telephone trick on you a second time, once we found you’d defused it. That was O’Horan’s idea, by the way. As you can see, I’ve always felt it was smarter, as well as nicer, to stick to simple misdirection.”
“Cut the bullshit. I know how you got that post office safe open. It was three of your boys, not one, who hauled Topkick Thompson out of that staged pile-up and put the noose around his neck. The fourth up there on the platform with you had to be the one as tripped the trap lever, right?”
The Great Costello shook his head and said, “You weren’t paying attention. O’Horan and Martin Pendergast were all it took to help me change places and coats with that hangman. I was the one who sprung the trap. I had to, so I could drop through it and stagger away sort of dusty and confused.”
“Men you admit you can kill when you think you have to?”
The older man smiled bitterly and asked, “Why not! What can you do about it, hang me?”
Longarm smiled thinly and said, “I sort of admire a gent who can face facts so philosophical. While we’re on the subject, how on earth did you beat me over that rail-yard fence by such a lead, or was that someone else
