Longarm had gone to his cabin about nine o'clock, wishing that Frank Carson would hurry back. For a couple of hours, he did nothing more than think about the situation, smoke cigarillos, and drink a little of the snake-killer whiskey. He didn't believe he had ever seen a quart jar of whiskey that was so hard to empty in all his life. It had been sitting on the cabin table for three days and three nights, and even with a little help from Frank Carson, it was still not even two-thirds empty.
He finally turned in at about eleven o'clock, but didn't sleep with his usual deep pleasure. The situation he was in kept turning over and over in his mind with a detail popping up here or another detail popping up there. All in all, it was more than one man's mind could handle at a time.
Then, some few hours later, he came awake with the knowledge that the door had been opened. He was too groggy and not quick enough to see who it was before he heard the door being softly closed. Without seeming to move, he slipped his hand under his pillow and grasped the butt of his revolver. By then, his eyes had adjusted, and he saw a small, slim figure coming to his bedside. He saw that it was Sally, and he let go of the handle of his gun. She was standing there, not quite a foot in front of him in some kind of a white robe. She whispered, 'Honey, you awake? Honey. I'm here.'
He whispered, 'Sally, what in hell are you doing? You're going to get us both killed.'
She was already taking off her robe. He could see clearly enough now that the breath caught in his throat at the sight of her white beauty. The black thatch stood out even more vividly against her light skin and the rosettes of the nipples of her breasts were clearly distinct. With a soft rustle, she let the robe fall to the floor and then she was crawling into the bed with him. Before he could speak again, she had put her arms around his head and pulled his face to hers, kissing him passionately. He could not stop his hands from roaming over her body, slipping down between her legs, coming up to the soft, warm vagina. His finger went into her, almost as if it had a mind of its own. He felt her shiver and gasp and the passion of her kisses increased. She pulled her head away from his only long enough to whisper flirtingly in his ear, 'I couldn't wait no longer. I was plum on fire.'
As best as he could, he said, 'Sally, honey, Mark is suspicious of me as it is. He's likely to have followed you.'
She said, 'I don't care. I done chose you. I want you.'
'Sally, this can't be,' he said.
'You're like a gift that got sent to me. You can't believe how hungry I've been, and there ain't nobody around here. It's so seldom for me. They hold me down. Daddy don't think anybody's good enough for me, and I get to hurting. I need it. I've got to have it.'
With a sigh, Longarm resigned himself to the inevitable. He couldn't much blame her, because he had cut her off short that afternoon. He knew how that felt, to get up a good head of steam and then have the train jump the tracks. He didn't blame her. He started to kiss her with the same fever that she had been kissing him. He pulled the covers back so that he could see her clearly. He began kissing her on the throat and then began working his way down, taking one breast into his mouth and then the other. He was down to her softly rounded little belly when the door suddenly came open with a crash. Longarm jumped and looked.
There, standing in the doorway with the night sky behind him, was Mark Colton.
He had a shotgun in his hand and that shotgun was pointed straight at the bed. Longarm could see another man behind him, also with a shotgun. He couldn't tell who it was, but he figured it was Mark's brother, John.
Mark Colton said, cold rage in his voice, 'Sally, get your ass out of that bed! Get your clothes on and get on out of here!'
Sally sat up. She said, 'Mark, you get your ass out of here! This ain't none of your affair. Now, both of you-all get out!'
Colton said, 'Sally, this is a double-barreled, double-triggered shotgun full of double-ought buckshot. I'm about to pull both triggers at the same time. You don't want to be in that bed.'
Longarm had the revolver out of sight. He had slipped it down under the covers so that he could have actually fired at Colton without the man ever knowing that he held a gun, but he held his fire. He would give it a half a moment to make certain Colton wasn't going to shoot. Maybe they could talk.
He said to Sally, 'Honey, you'd better do what he says. He's as mad as hell and he's liable to do anything.'
She said, 'I don't care what he says or what he does. I done chose you. It ain't none of his affair, and he knows it. John, you better get him out of here, or I'm going to tell Daddy.'
From behind Mark, Longarm could hear the other brother say, 'Sally, it would be best if you got up and got dressed and went on in the house. We're going to go in and see Daddy. In fact, you wake him up and tell him to come on in the kitchen. We'll talk this out.'
Sally said, 'Well, Mark had better not shoot him, because he's the one I chose. If he does, I'll cut his throat one dark night.'
'Mark ain't gonna shoot no one, but we are going to go in and talk to Daddy.'
She turned and looked back at Longarm. He stared back at her wonderingly. She said, 'Now, don't you be a- feared. That big bully Mark ain't gonna do nothing. Daddy would have his hide if he shot you here in a bed that Daddy had given you to sleep in.'
Longarm said, 'Well, that's damned hospitable of Daddy. I just hope Mark understands the rules.'
Mark said in an outraged voice, 'Dammit, I ain't gonna wait much longer. Get out of that bed, Sally.'
She said, 'I'm naked. You ain't supposed to see me when I'm naked. You're my brother. You get out of that door and then I'll get dressed.'
Mark said, 'Yeah, and that son of a bitch will have a gun in his hand if I back out the door.'
Longarm said quietly, 'Mark, I've already got a gun in my hand under the cover. Would you like me to shoot you square in the chest to prove it?'
'You be a-lyin'.'
For answer, Longarm cocked the revolver. In the quiet of the night, it made a deadly sound as the hammer came back into a firing position.
