job of work he was faced with.
CHAPTER 6
Supper that night was pretty much as lunch had been, except they had fried chicken and mashed potatoes and canned green beans and canned tomatoes. It was, Longarm decided, about as good a fried chicken as he had ever had, and he said as much to the stringy-haired woman who worked in the kitchen and was married to one of the sons. Which one of them, he never could figure out, since she was as sour to each of them as she was to everyone else.
When he complimented her on the chicken, she gave him a look like he was an idiot and said, 'How in tarnation can you mess up fresh chicken? All you do is chop the head off of it, pick it, scald it, cut it up, roll it in flour, and then fry it. Hell, a damned fool can fry chicken.'
After that, she closed her mouth and didn't say another word.
Longarm said to her profile, 'Well, I'm glad to have it explained that way. I always wondered how they fried chicken.'
Not a soul laughed or even looked up. The only one not intent on her food was Sally. She had gone back to her habit of staring at Longarm, which was starting to make him uncomfortable. He had noticed that Asa Colton and the two brothers seemed to be aware of it and they didn't seem to be altogether pleased. Frank Carson had advised Asa that he would be leaving early the next morning to go in and clear up some business in Little Rock and that he would be back in a couple of days.
Mark Colton had looked at him and then at Longarm. He said, jerking his head toward Longarm, 'You ain't leavin' this one here, be you?'
Carson said, 'I thought you understood, Mark, that he can't go back into Little Rock. Morton and the law are looking for him. Yeah, I'm leaving him here. Asa said it was all right. Is it all right with you?'
Mark narrowed his small eyes and gave Longarm a look. He said, 'He better stick to his own row of corn. That's all I'll say for him.'
Longarm gave the man a look back. He said, 'Neighbor, nobody ever caught me hoeing somebody else's row of corn. In fact, if you want to know the truth of the matter, I ain't never hoed a row of corn in my life and don't plan on starting now.'
The man's eyes went flat. He said, 'You've got kind of a smart mouth on you, don't you, mister?'
Longarm said casually, 'It probably seems that way to you, but then I guess most nearly everyone would appear to have a smart mouth on them to you.'
Frank Carson gave him a swift look. He said, 'Mr. Long, you're a guest here.'
Longarm tried to look amiable but did not do a very good job at it. He said, 'Why, I'm being just as friendly as I can be.'
John Colton said to his brother, 'Mark, get off the prod. This gent ain't done you no harm.'
Mark was still staring at Longarm. He said, 'I don't like the way he keeps eyeing Sally.'
John Colton said, 'Hell, Mark. That's just the brother in you. He ain't looked at her no more than anybody else.'
Longarm was dumbfounded. He hadn't looked at Sally a fraction of the amount of time she had spent staring at him. He started to say so but then thought better of it. He said, 'Gents, I'm just here to do some whiskey business. That's all. Nothing else. I am surely not being ungentlemanly toward your sister.'
John said, 'She's just our half sister. She's the young one from Daddy's last wife. She got taken off with the fever, not six or seven months ago.'
Longarm said, 'I'm right sorry to hear that.' But to him, the whole situation was strange and strained. On the surface, he was supposed to be a customer doing what to them was legitimate business. They were treating him like a spy and an interloper and a lawman, which he really was, but they weren't supposed to know that.
That evening, after they had gone back to their cabin, Longarm said to Frank Carson, 'What is it with these people? That Mark has taken a dislike to me, and I ain't done a damned thing. If anybody is staring at anybody, it's Sally staring at me. And what the hell does he care? She's his sister.'
Carson said, 'Half sister, and in these hill countries and with these hill-country people, that's damned near marriage material.'
Longarm stared at him. He said, 'You are joshing me.'
Carson said, 'Maybe a little, but not all that much. Don't pay that much attention to them. These hill people are suspicious by nature. They don't even notice that you're there until you've been around for two or three years and maybe, in about ten years, they might make acquaintance with you. They don't make no friends with nobody unless they are blood kin.'
Longarm said, 'Well, I can see I'm going to enjoy my time around here. You don't dally around in Little Rock, you hear? Get there, get the business done, and get back. I may just stay in this cabin the whole time.'
Frank Carson turned around from what he was doing and looked across the room at Longarm. He said, 'That might not be a bad idea. Right now, if somebody was to offer me even money whether you'd be alive or not when I got back, I don't know which way I'd bet.'
Longarm said, 'Oh, that's a hell of a comfort, Frank. I'm glad to know that you are so concerned about my welfare.'
'You just do like I tell you, and you'll be all right. Nothing really, bad happens around here unless Asa wants it to.'
Longarm gave Carson the sheet of paper with the message that was to be wired. Frank Carson took a moment to read it and then glanced back at Longarm. He said, 'Hell, what are you writing here? This has got to be the longest damned telegram that I've ever seen. You're going to have to give me a few bucks to send this sucker.'
Longarm said sarcastically, 'I hadn't expected for you to do it for nothing. There'll be a little something in it for
