make a living, you'd have better things to do than to waste people's time. Now, I ain't seen your badge yet.'
Longarm gritted his teeth to keep from increasing the immediate dislike he and the blacksmith had taken to each other. He summoned up enough patience to show the man his badge, which he did not routinely keep on display. Like most things, Longarm had a good reason for keeping his badge out of sight most of the time. He'd known desperate and hunted outlaws to actually draw their guns and shoot badge-toters without warning.
'That satisfy you, or do I have to find your sheriff and make things ugly?'
'Whoa!' the blacksmith yelled, jumping back as the horse he was shoeing tried to rear. 'Goddamn you jug- headed sonofabitch!'
'You haven't got much patience, have you?' Longarm drawled as the blacksmith jerked on the horse's lead rope and tried to discipline it to shoeing.
The blacksmith took a swing at the horse, but missed and crashed to the ground.
Suppressing a smile, Longarm said, 'Mr. Rowe, it's plain to see that the animal is scared. Give him a few minutes to settle down and talk to him gentle and I'll bet he'd behave himself. Save you both some considerable wear and tear.'
'Do you want to shoe this miserable bastard?'
'Nope.'
'Then what the hell do you want?'
Longarm could see that this man was in a bad state of mind and nothing but a fight and a good whipping would correct Ned Rowe's poor way of thinking. 'Well, to begin with, I want to know if that horse was brought in with a broken right shoe.'
'Nope.' Rowe yanked on the horse's lead rope again. 'So why are you asking such a foolish question?'
'I'm looking for a horse with a broken right shoe. Probably a right foreshoe.'
'If you find the animal and it's got any sense, send it my way,' Rowe growled. 'I can always use the business.'
Longarm dismounted and dropped to one knee. He dug his pocket knife out of his Levi's and said, 'Come here and take a look at what I'm about to show you.'
Rowe started to say something, then clamped his mouth shut as if he thought better of it. 'What the hell are you going to do?'
'If someone brings in an animal with a shoe like this,' Longarm said, sketching a horseshoe to indicate how the track he had followed down from the cabin had appeared, 'then I'll pay you ten dollars to alert me.'
The anger drained out of the blacksmith's square face, and was replaced by a look of cunning. 'Say now, Deputy, this wouldn't have anything to do with that train wreck up at the summit, would it?'
'Ten dollars,' Longarm repeated. 'And if it leads to the arrest of the men I want, there could be a whole lot more in reward money.'
The blacksmith's entire demeanor underwent a transformation. 'I'll keep it in mind, Marshal! My back aches and I can't pay my bills, what with the hard times we're in right now. How much is the reward for them train robbers?'
'I didn't say anything about any train robbers.'
'You didn't have to. I'm not stupid, and neither is anyone else in this town. We're expecting a whole raft of lawmen to come sniffin' around looking for that bunch of murderin' sonofabitches.'
'Well,' Longarm said, 'I was on that train and my prisoner escaped and a lot of passengers died. So I have a personal need to get my hands on those men first. Is that clear?'
The blacksmith was not as tall as Longarm, but he was more muscular. 'Hey,' he said, 'I'm on your side! If someone brings a horse in with a shoe like you've drawn, I'll beat a hot trail to you. Count on it!'
'I'll be staying just up the street at the Outpost Hotel,' Longarm said. 'But I don't think that I'll be there more than a day or two.'
'If this horse that you're looking for was ridden all the way down from the summit with a broken shoe, I'm surprised he hasn't gone lame yet.'
'Me too.'
'You gonna go to my competitor with the same offer?'
'Sure, why not?'
'No reason,' the blacksmith said quickly. 'But he's blind and drunk most of the time. He won't help you.'
'I'll be looking pretty hard for myself,' Longarm informed the man. 'But if I was riding a horse with a broken shoe, I'd take notice and get him shod right away. That's why I came to you first thing.'
'Much obliged! And hey, what about your horse, Deputy? Looks like he could use a new set of irons.'
'Hell,' Longarm drawled, 'he was just shod in Cheyenne yesterday.'
Ned Rowe scratched his belly and turned back to the horse he was working on. He jerked hard on the rope, and the animal backed away in fear. 'All right, jug-head! You settled down yet?'
'Yes, sir, Ned, you sure got a fine way with horses,' Longarm said cryptically as he reined his sorrel on down the street to find the other blacksmith.
'Go to hell, Deputy!'
At the corner of the street, Longarm glanced back and saw that Ned Rowe was watching him closely. Did the man know something that he wasn't telling about the gang? Longarm hadn't a clue. Most likely, Rowe didn't know
