a man ever treated himself to if he ever got off this high prairie and back to civilization. He was going to lie in a cold tub of water and drink cold beer and eat one steak right after another. But first he had to give Jack Shaw the bad news. He said, “I’m sorry to tell you this, Jack, but matters ain’t going to go in that direction. If I feel I can’t hold on until the Rangers get here, I’m going to start shooting your horses, and I’ll kill every one of them and leave you in the same shape I’m in. On foot. Out here in the big middle of nowhere. I reckon they’ll find you, Jack, no matter what happens to me.”
There was silence, and then Jack Shaw said, sounding amazed, “Why, goddamn, Custis, that is just downright mean. Cruel! Shoot a man’s horses?
Leave him afoot in this kind of country? Don’t you know it was for just such reasoning that we started hanging horse thieves?”
“Jack,” Longarm said calmly, “I am a lawman. And you did rob a train and kill several of the occupants. We take that kind of serious also.”
There was a silence. A little breeze stirred the morning coolness. The windmill blades creaked around, and water poured out of the little pipe and into the water barrel. Longarm looked over at it longingly. It was so close, yet so far away. Even if he was standing at the fence, he didn’t have a long enough neck and head like the horse to reach the water that was flooding out of the barrel.
Shaw said, “You shore you wouldn’t take some money and let me ride on out, Custis? Hell, I could leave you ten, maybe fifteen thousand dollars American. I’m talking money here, Custis. I know you are square as a preacher’s dice, but I ain’t Worth all this trouble. Hell, you are sufferin’ out there, Custis. Whyn’t you look the other way for about ten minutes and you’ll have you a nice little nest egg to hatch.”
Longarm let him talk, waiting for him to run down. When, by the silence, he figured Shaw was through, he said, “Jack, you are starting to run out of time. At least you are gambling with your time. When you are able to see those Rangers coming across the prairie, it will be too late for me to have any control over the situation. You ought to give yourself up now.”
“I can’t do that, Custis.” There was a pause. “I reckon I’m going to have to take my chances on what kind of shot you are. If you last out the day, I reckon sometime tonight I’ll mix in with the horses and try and make a getaway for the border.”
“You convince me of that and I might have to start shooting horses right now.”
“Hell, Custis, you don’t understand. I got enough I ain’t going to cut up wild no more. I’m heading straight for Mexico and I’m never coming back across that line again. You’ve seen the last of me. What good will it do you to see me rot in prison or swing at the end of a rope?”
“I’m glad to say I don’t have to think ‘bout such things, Jack. My orders are just to go out and catch ‘em. I don’t have to decide if they be guilty or set their punishment.” Shaw said morosely, “I know you ain’t bulling about them Arizona Rangers. Bulling never was your style, Custis. Not when it come to serious matters. I hate like hell the situation has come down to this. Hell, Custis, it has got damn serious.”
At a little after noon they began talking again. Longarm thought Shaw was starting to weaken enough that he might give serious attention to a proposal Longarm had. He said, “Jack, what kind of wanted paper they got on you in New Mexico Territory? I figure they got some, ain’t they?” Shaw said, the irritation plain in his voice, “You trying to crack a joke, Longarm? Hell, yes, they got wanted paper on me.”
“For what?”
Longarm could almost see Shaw shrug. “Oh, little cattle rustling. Robbed a couple of banks. I never done much business there. That’s a mighty poor piece of country next to Texas and Arizona. Hell, I figured go where they had the most to steal.”
“You ain’t got no murder paper out on you?”
“Not that I know of. Let me think. No, no, I don’t reckon I killed anybody there. Maybe as a lawman. Hell, it wasn’t never my favorite part of the country. Like I say, the damn place is poor an’ it’s already overrun with all the trash and second-raters you can find.”
“And you never killed nobody there?”
“Dammit, didn’t I just say so? Hell, Custis, I don’t have to kill folks everywhere I go. I never killed nobody without it was for profit. What you think I am, some kind of murderin’ fool like that idiot they call Billy the Kid? I notice he stays around New Mexico. That ought to tell you what I think of the place.” Longarm said slowly, “I got a thought here. It ain’t the best you want to do, but it might be the best you can do.”
“What is it? Hell, I’m open to nearly anything right now.”
Longarm hesitated a moment, trying to figure how Jack Shaw would consider the idea. If he was really afraid of the Arizona Rangers—which Longarm thought he had every right to be—then he would have to look favorably at the proposition. Maybe not at first, but in the end he’d have to see it as his best alternative. Longarm wanted him to take it right away because he was already feeling the effects of the sun. He knew his body was dehydrating, and he knew he’d lost too much salt out of his system through sweating. He wasn’t certain how long he could hold out. In effect he was going on his sixth day of driving his body to its limit. Even as blessed as he was with a first-rate physical constitution, there was a limit to what he could stand.
impatiently Shaw said, “Well, dammit, Longarm, you got a idea or not?
Speak up, man, don’t be bashful.”
“All right,” Longarm said. “I’ll tell you what I’m willing to do. If you will surrender right now. I mean pretty quick. I’m willing to take you into custody and turn you over to territorial law in New Mexico. I don’t figure the border is more than forty or fifty miles from here. If I’ve got it figured right, we ought to have a dead straight shot at Lordsburg, which is just inside the border.” Shaw said, disappointment in his voice, “Hell, that ain’t no idea.
That’s robbing Peter to pay Paul. Why would I care if you turned me in here or New Mexico?”
Longarm said, “That’s why I was asking you what kind of paper they had on you in New Mexico Territory. They’ll string you up for sure here. Right away if them Arizona Rangers catch you. And for shore within thirty days even if I get you to federal or territorial law. They ain’t gonna like what happened at that train, Jack. I surrender you in New Mexico, you ain’t wanted for no hanging offense. You’ll go to prison. I ain’t going to try and convince you that will be no picnic, because I would imagine you’ve seen such places when you were a lawman. But at least you’ll be alive. And you might escape. It’s been done.”
Shaw was silent for a moment. Finally he said, “Aw, hell, Longarm, it ain’t no good. I see the point and it is a
