Their cabin was made out of timber and was comfortable enough. It had a small fireplace and a woodstove and two bunks. There were plenty of chairs and a small table. They went in and sat down, armed with two glasses and a quart bottle of what old man Colton had referred to as the 'aged goods.' They sat down and had a drink. Both men winced a little as they swallowed the strong liquor.
Longarm gasped and said, 'If that's aged, then I must be about three years old.'
Carson said, 'It ain't made for drinking, Mr. Long.'
'Then why in hell are we drinking it?'
'Because it's all we've got.'
They sipped in silence for a few moments. Longarm got out a cigarillo and lit it. Carson did the same with a cigar. For a moment longer, they smoked in silence and sipped delicately at the green whiskey. Finally, Carson cast his eyes over at Longarm. He said, 'Now, you know, they ain't going to sell you any whiskey on a promissory note, don't you?'
Longarm nodded. 'I kind of figured that out, Mr. Carson. There's not a whole hell of a lot I can do about it. The only way I can get a bank draft in here is by telegraph from my bank in Denver to a bank in Little Rock. I don't figure any of these little towns sprinkled around here are going to have a bank of a size that could receive a bank wire.'
Carson nodded. 'That be true.'
'So here I sit with a few hundred bucks, not near enough to buy the amount of whiskey I need to get, and I can't get back into Little Rock. I don't know what I'm going to do.'
Carson knocked the stub off his cigar. He said, 'I've got a little bit of business to wind up in Little Rock before I come back here to take delivery of my whiskey. Could be I could handle the matter for you.'
Longarm cocked his head at him. He said, 'You'd do that?'
'Yeah, I'd be willing to go to the trouble. I don't know how we'd work it. I take it that I'm supposed to send a wire to your partner in Denver and he'll wire twenty-five hundred dollars back to you in Little Rock.'
'Yeah, that's the way it's going to work.'
'But that bank draft is going to be for you. I ain't you, and I can tell you right now that Asa Colton ain't going to take no bank draft. The man don't deal in anything except cash on the barrelhead.'
Longarm said, 'Well, cash the damned thing before you come back.'
Frank Carson gave him a look. 'Now, I'm supposed to cash a bank draft that's in your name, Custis Long, and my name is Frank Carson. How do you reckon that's going to work?'
Longarm frowned. He said, 'Hmmm, I don't reckon that will work. You got any ideas?'
Carson nodded. 'You could have your partner wire the draft in my name and then I could cash it and bring the money on back here to you when I come back to settle up on my whiskey.'
Longarm gave him a sideways look. 'Let me get this straight. You want me to have twenty-five hundred dollars of my money wired to you in your name and then you put the cash in your pocket. I'm supposed to trust you like that?'
Carson shrugged. 'Near as I recollect, you trusted me with your life. You going to tell me that twenty-five hundred dollars is worth more than your life?'
Longarm pulled a face. He said, 'Now that you put it like that, it does kind of make sense. You've got to come back out here to pick up your whiskey, anyway.' He looked across the room. 'Doesn't seem to me that I've got much choice.'
Carson said, 'If you're a mind to do it, you better get your telegram message written out tonight, because I'm going to start first thing in the morning. I don't want to spend any more time around Little Rock than I have to. I have a feeling that Morton Colton and his pet deputy sheriffs might not be feeling so kindly toward me.'
Longarm said, 'I don't see why. You kept me from killing all three of the sons of bitches.'
Carson laughed softly. He said, 'They might not see it that way.'
Longarm sat thinking for a moment, though it really didn't require much thought. There didn't seem to be any other way. He wondered, however, if he could word the telegram in such a way that Billy Vail would pick up on the urgency and the necessity of sending the money, but more importantly understand that he would be sending it to a stranger who did not know that Longarm was a deputy marshal. If Billy slipped up in the return wire that would most likely accompany the money, it could be the finish of him. Hopefully, Billy wouldn't send an inquiry with the bank draft. Hopefully, he would be willing to send $2500 to a man whose name he did not know. Longarm knew in the message he would send in with Frank Carson that he would have to include some sort of clue to warn Billy that the circumstances were unusual. Perhaps, he thought, the simplest way would be to come right out and say that he was in a tight spot and that it was necessary to use an intermediary. People other than deputy marshals got into tight places. Maybe the old fool would understand that and then, maybe, the old fool wouldn't. Sometimes, it seemed to Longarm, Billy's greatest delight in life was seeing just what kind of a fix he could get Longarm into and then watch him squirm to get out.
After another moment, Longarm said to Frank Carson, 'Well, it doesn't seem like I do have much choice in the matter. Tell you what, I'll hunt up a piece of paper and a pencil and write out the wire. Do you know a bank in Little Rock we could have it sent to?'
Carson shrugged. He said, 'Well, there's the First Arkansas National Bank. It's about the biggest one in town. Will that do?'
'Yeah, I reckon. At least, if we're going to trust somebody, we might as well trust the biggest bank.'
Frank Carson got up. 'I'm going to go and have a visit with the old man and see if my whiskey is ready to go or just what the situation is. I want to make certain that I have time to get to Little Rock and get back here. I've got to clear my gear out of my room at the hotel since I don't reckon I'll be going back in there anymore.'
Longarm looked at him sideways. 'Oh, so you'll finally be passing through?'
