'I'm not going to tell you the details about how this prisoner killed the wife and mother,' Longarm said, taking pity on Miss Noble. 'But I will tell you this much, it wasn't pretty and it wasn't a quick, merciful death. And so you see, I don't care if this man hangs or I have the pleasure of killing him before we reach Denver.'
Miss Noble swayed as a sudden and powerful gust of wind rocked their coach. She appeared faint, and could not seem to tear her eyes off Eli as he licked his thin lips.
'Miss Noble, you look unwell. Why don't you take a seat?' Longarm said, feeling a little guilty because he had been so forthright in his account of the murder.
Another passenger who had also been glaring at Longarm now turned his icy gaze on Eli, who seemed oblivious to everything.
'Deputy, how did you ever manage to capture that... that monster?'
'He made the mistake of stealing the sodbuster's horses and cutting southwest toward Utah. Eli didn't realize that country is damned rocky and neither of the sodbuster's horses were shod. They went lame up in the Unita Mountains, and I was able to overtake Eli and catch him asleep right at dawn.'
Eli's face turned bitter. 'Damned sonsabitchin' plow horses!'
The other man introduced himself. 'My name is Edward Ashmore and I'm the president of the Bank of Wyoming with headquarters in Cheyenne. We're opening a second branch in Laramie and I'm constantly traveling back and forth between those places. Fifty miles doesn't seem like a long journey by rail, except that it's all up and then down a mountain. It's a tedious and even dangerous roadbed.'
'I know that,' Longarm said. 'There are a lot of switchbacks, and I've been over this stretch in winter when the trains had a terrible time crossing.'
'I'm hoping that, it only being November, we won't get the kind of snowstorm we might get a month or two from now.'
'I hope you're right,' Longarm said, looking out the window and seeing that the snow was thick now and visibility was just forty or fifty yards.
'I for one,' Ashmore said, 'understand that there are such men as your prisoner. I've never witnessed a killing or been to war. But I've lived in Wyoming more than ten years now and I know that there are desperate and ruthless outlaws. Men perfectly capable of murder. Deputy Long, you're to be congratulated for taking every precaution against allowing this man to escape and attempt to murder one of us.'
'I appreciate your support,' Longarm said, loud enough so that Miss Noble could not possibly fail to hear. 'A lawman never seems to get much respect, and we damn sure don't get much pay either. But someone has to track down fugitives of the law and bring them to justice.'
'Tell me, have you ever considered some other occupation?'
'Such as?'
The banker shrugged. 'The Bank of Wyoming could use an ex-lawman to guard shipments between Cheyenne and Laramie. I like your no-nonsense style. You strike me as a true professional, sir.'
Longarm warmed to the praise. 'I sincerely appreciate your kind and flattering words. But the fact of the matter is that I like my work. Oh, I grumble about the hours and the bad pay. I sometimes even envy a sheriff or town marshal who can go home to a wife and children. I'm constantly being sent hither and yon after escaped fugitives. But I'm good at it, and in fact I think there are few better.'
The banker smiled. 'Yes, yes, I'm sure that's true. You're exactly the kind of a man that we could use to protect our interests. There's a bright future in Wyoming banking for a steady man who can handle himself. I'm sure that we could offer you a salary that would make you give up that badge.'
'Thanks, but I'm just not interested.'
Ashmore looked genuinely surprised. 'I'm not used to being turned down when I offer a man an exceptionally well-paying job. Is there... is there something personal you have against me, sir?'
'Oh, no! I just like my work and right now I'm trying to keep my mind on my prisoner. Maybe the next time I come through Cheyenne I can look you up and we can talk.'
'By then the position might be filled.'
'That's a chance I'll just have to take,' Longarm said, trying but failing to sound concerned because he doubted that he'd have any real interest in being a bank guard no matter how good the pay.
'I'm going to raise hell with our conductor for letting this coach get so frigid,' the banker said, rubbing his hands briskly together. 'It's outrageous!'
Longarm glanced around. 'I haven't seen him for quite some time.'
'I'll go look for him,' the banker said, loud enough for everyone to hear. 'I'm not about to let these good people, many of whom are undoubtedly faithful depositors at the Bank of Wyoming, suffer because of a dereliction of duty.'
'Good idea,' Longarm said, noting how the storm and the train had finally met so that visibility outside was reduced to nothing.
Eli stared at the window, the muscles of his jaw distended. In a quiet voice he said, 'I'm not going to hang.'
'That's not my business,' Longarm said. 'All I'm sworn to do is bring you to trial.'
'Yeah, but you don't know what happened back there at that homestead.'
Longarm's voice dropped to a hard whisper. 'Oh, yes I do! I can read signs and I know you slaughtered that entire family.'
'They weren't neighborly to me,' Eli said between clenched teeth. 'The sodbuster, he wouldn't give me a fair trade for two lame horses. All I wanted was a fair trade!'
'So you blew his face off? Tell it to the judge after I tell him about the wife and the sons.'
