so I can put these men back in their cells.”
The sheriff stood his ground. He said in a cold voice, “Listen, Long. You’ve rode roughshod over me about as long as I’m gonna stand for it. Now you get out of my office and you stay out of my office. You ain’t welcome in this jail anymore and you’re not going to use it for your personal lockup. I don’t care if you are a federal deputy marshal.” He put his hand near the butt of his revolver. It was not quite a threatening gesture, but it had implications.
Without pause, Longarm drew his revolver and thumbed the hammer back. It made a loud clitch-clatch in the room. The noise startled Clarence Botts. He stepped back several paces. Longarm said, “Now, I’m only going to say this once, Sheriff. You either stay out of this, or I’m going to put you in one of those cells with these men. You are interfering with a federal officer in the performance of his duty and that is a felony, and I will damn well put you in jail and bring you to trial for it. Do you understand me?”
The sheriff took a step backwards. The move seemed to unite him with the three Castles, who were standing near the lockup door. Then the sheriff said, “You’re cutting it mighty thin, Long, mighty thin. I don’t think you want the trouble you are fixing to get.”
Longarm said evenly, “Smith, with your left hand reach around and unbuckle your gunbelt. Let it fall to the floor.”
The sheriff stared at him. He said, “You’re disarming me in my own jail?”
“I am disarming a man who is trying to interfere with a federal officer. The fact that you’re the sheriff don’t cut no ice with me. Now, unbuckle that gunbelt and let it fall to the floor or I’m going to have to make use of this revolver in my hand.”
Vernon Castle said, “You wouldn’t dare shoot.”
With his eyes still on the sheriff, Longarm said, “Do you want to bet your life on that, or bet your sons’ lives on that, or do you want to bet the sheriff’s life on that?” He reached up and tapped the badge on his chest. “You might defy Custis Long the man and get away with it, but you damn well ain’t going to defy this. This says I’m a deputy United States marshal and that I represent the federal government. You’re not going to defy that. Now, I’m not even going to count to three, but if I don’t see some action here right quick, this revolver is going to go off. Is that clear?”
The sheriff’s face paled. “Now wait a minute. Hold on. Hold on there, Long. Let’s talk about this for a minute.”
“The only talk I want to hear is either you taking that gunbelt off and getting in that jail, or giving me your word that you are not going to interfere with me anymore.”
The sheriff said, his voice unsteady, “Look. You can’t do this to a man in his own town. It ain’t fittin’. We’re both law officers.”
“That’s true. Why don’t you try acting like one?”
“You have the right to lock them up on a federal charge for conspiracy to murder?”
“In my opinion I do. If I don’t, then I’m the one that has to pay for it, do you understand? The responsibility is mine, but if you interfere with me, the responsibility is yours. Even if I shoot you, the responsibility is yours.”
The sheriff turned to the Castles and said in an uncertain voice, “Mr. Castle, I don’t seem to have much choice here. I’m mighty sorry about this, but he is a federal marshal, and if he says that he has jurisdiction, there ain’t a hell of a lot that I can say about it.”
Vernon Castle stared at Longarm with hate and venom in his eyes. “Don’t worry about it, Smith,” he said. “I don’t expect you to stand up to this bully, but by God, his day is coming. You can depend on that.”
Longarm said, “If I’m wrong, you’ll have no problems giving me enough trouble to last me a lifetime. But I don’t think I’m wrong and I don’t think that you’re going to be able to get my badge and I don’t think that you’re going to be able to get out of that jail. Now, when you settle down and are willing to talk some sense to me, I might consider letting you out of that jail, but not until then. Now, all three of you turn around, march back through that lockup door, and get back to your cells. And Sheriff, you follow right along behind them and make sure they do.”
As Longarm was about to step forward, the lawyer said in a trembling voice, “What am I supposed to do now? How can I get them released?”
Longarm gave him a glance. He said, “Well, Mr. Botts, I guess you’re going to have to go back to San Antonio and see Judge Fisher again.” Longarm handed him the document he’d brought back from San Antonio. “Here, take this with you. Maybe the judge can write a new writ of habeas corpus on the back and save the government some paper.”
He followed along as the sheriff took the three Castles and put them back into their original cells. Vernon Castle was almost shaking with rage, and his two sons were no less angry.
As the sheriff passed Longarm in the corridor between the cells, he muttered, “Well, I hope you’re happy, Longarm. You’ve made me look like a piss-pot fool in this town.”
“On the contrary,” Longarm said. “I forced you to do your job. That ought to make you a big man. You stood up to me, didn’t you?”
The sheriff said, “Oh, go to hell, you sonofabitch.”
Longarm shook his head. “I do not believe I have ever been called a sonofabitch more times in as short a time in all my life.” With that, he found a chair and pulled it up in front of Mr. Castle’s cell. “Now, Vernon. I’m going to sit right down here and you and I are going to talk. Right now you don’t want to talk, and maybe you’re not going to want to talk for an hour or two hours or three hours or six hours, but I am going to sit here until you are ready to talk to me. Then we’re going to see if maybe we can’t work something out about this matter.”
Vernon Castle gave him a look. “You go straight to hell,” he said. “None of my sons have had anything to do with the murder of soldiers.”
Longarm said, “But you don’t know that, Mr. Castle, you don’t know that about Virgil. Now, I’m going to want all the information I can get from you about Virgil. I’m going to try and reach an agreement with you about Virgil. I think that maybe there is something that we can do about him and if you’re willing to do it, ya’ll can all get out of jail and we can all take care of Virgil without hurting him.”
