Longarm finished his coffee and carefully tamped out what was left of his cigar. He said, “Then I reckon we better get on with it. I think we had ought to make a early start. I’d like to get away from here by dawn if we can. Little before would be even better. Get some traveling done before the heat takes it out of the horses.”
Shaw stood up. There was still enough light from the fire that it lit up the recesses of the cabin. He said, “I’ll get my bedroll and put it down. Then you can tuck me in when you’re a mind.”
Longarm laid out his own bedroll against the back wall of the cabin. He put his saddle blanket down, unfolding it until it was stretched out to its four-foot-by-six-foot length. Over that he put the tarp that he rolled his blankets and the rest of his gear in. Most folks put the tarp down first and then the saddle blanket, but Longarm had never cared to lay on the salt-soaked saddle blanket, and certainly didn’t want to smell it all night long. He put his two blankets down, doubling the inside one. Lastly, he set his saddle at the head to give him a sort of pillow. He could tell how cold it was the instant he got very far from the fire. There was enough split cordwood left that he could have gotten the cabin pretty warm, but it wouldn’t have done Shaw any good and he didn’t think it would be fair otherwise. When he was finished, he walked over to the door of the cabin. Shaw had made his bed by the eastern roof post. Longarm could see he intended to sleep on his right side with his back to the cabin. Once he was manacled around the post there wouldn’t be room for him to turn over. Shaw was standing by his bedroll. He looked around as Longarm came to the door. About eight feet separated them. Longarm said, “You ‘bout settled in?” Shaw said, “I reckon.”
“You want a jug of whiskey to keep you company? You got a couple bottles of your own left.”
Shaw shook his head. “Naw. I’ve had enough. I don’t know which feels worse, getting shot or riding in this sun with a head aching from whiskey. I think I’d rather be shot.”
Longarm looked surprised. “I didn’t know you’d been shot.”
Shaw nodded. “Yeah. Wasn’t a hell of a long time before I ran into you down there in Mexico.” He made a little crooked smile. “It was kind of like this deal here. Only we’d robbed a bank and I didn’t quite get my last partner killed. I thought the sonofabitch was dead and was walking away, and he raised up and shot me in the back.
Longarm shook his head. “Gettin’ to where you can’t trust nobody no more. I reckon it must not have been fatal.
“I got lucky.” He dropped to his knees on his blanket, and then turned and sat down while he took his boots off. He was still wearing the leather jacket, and the combination of that and the manacles made the task of removing his boots awkward. Longarm made no move to help. It would have brought them too close. Shaw said, “I bent over to pick something up—the money, I think it was—when he fired. Bullet went in just above my shoulder blade and come out by my right collarbone. Never hit nothing serious. But don’t never let nobody tell you that getting a hole bored in you is funny. Ain’t a damn thing funny about it. It hurts going in and coming out and hurts while you are getting well. It was a full year before I had what I considered the natural use of my right arm and hand. I could use them, but they was just a kind of little hitch in it. That scar tissue, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” Longarm said slowly. “I’m not much of a one for getting shot myself. Though I’d rather have it hurt than not feel anything.”
Shaw laughed. “Yeah, I know about that. No, I reckon I can wait for that sensation.”
“Or the lack of it.”
“Yeah.”
“You need anything else? You going to sleep in that jacket?”
“I reckon to.”
“Well, you won’t be movin’ around much, so I don’t reckon it will bind you. Look here.”
Longarm took a step toward Shaw and pitched the key to him. Shaw caught it in the air, and Longarm watched as he unlocked one of the manacles and then passed the end around the post. Longarm took another step toward Shaw, and leaned to watch the outlaw put the cuff around his left wrist. Longarm said, “You ain’t got to make it pinch, Jack, but I want to see that cuff snugged up and hear it click at least twice.”
Shaw smiled slightly. “I ain’t likely to break these.” Still on his knees he raised both his hands, the chain encircling the post. “You want to check them?”
“Naw,” Longarm said. “I imagine you’d like for me to forget to ask for the key back, but I believe you just put it into your jacket pocket.”
Shaw faked an astonished look. “Why, my goodness, did I do that?” He swiveled his body around until he could reach into the side pocket of his jacket. He came out holding a key so Longarm could see it.
Longarm said, “Pitch it as best you can toward the end of your blankets.”
In an awkward move, with his hands restricted by the manacles, Shaw transferred the key to his left hand and then pitched it toward Longarm. It landed at the foot of the blankets. Longarm bent down, watching Shaw, and retrieved the key.
Shaw laughed. “You looked like you thought I was gonna jump you. Hell, Longarm, I ain’t much of a threat to nobody.”
“Can you get in your bed all right?”
“Yeah,” Shaw said. While Longarm watched, he pawed around with his stocking feet and worked them under his two blankets, gradually easing his body down under his covers. Shaw said, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Longarm turned. “You holler at me if you’re first awake. I don’t reckon you got any more interest than I do hanging around in these parts.”
“If it hadn’t of been for the horses and the water situation, I’d of been willing to of kept on riding.”
Longarm sat down on his bedroll inside the cabin and took off his boots. The fire was down now so that it just provided a little glow in the room. But there was still good moonlight, and enough streamed in through the two doors and three windows that the interior of the cabin was clear enough. Longarm had placed his bedding so that he could see through the door and see most of Shaw. He didn’t reckon the man was going anywhere, but still, he never slept too well in the company of bandits, even when they were manacled to part of the house.
Before he settled down, he took his rifle and hid it under the blankets between himself and the wall. He pulled
