Asa Colton nodded. 'Folks around here like it that way. Now, you take your blended and bonded whiskeys that are eighty and ninety or one hundred proof, they're too mild for the folks around here. They don't feel they're getting their money's worth unless that first sip damn near knocks their tongue sideways in their mouth. Four drinks ought to bring a full-grown man into a cane-bottom chair. If it doesn't do it, then we ain't done our job.'
Longarm smiled. He said, 'Well, four big drinks of this and I reckon I'd want more under me than a cane-bottom chair. I reckon I'd want one made out of cement or something else as steady.'
After an appropriate time of sitting around admiring the aged whiskey, Asa Colton got around to Longarm's prospects. Longarm had been expecting it, so he invented a two hundred thousand acre ranch near Tucson, Arizona, that was stocked with some cattle and some goats. He said, 'But you must understand, Mr. Colton, I'm not much in the cattle business anymore and the timber business has about played out. There's too much timber out in California that's closer, and shipping costs were eating us alive cutting timber up in northern Arizona. That's what's brought me down here. I plan to be in the whiskey business. I do own a saloon in Tucson, and I plan to open several others. I've got ample funds to take care of your daughter. I reckon you'll understand if I don't give you an exact figure, but I've got the money to buy a lot of whiskey and to get it bottled properly.'
Mr. Colton looked concerned. He said, 'Now, son, I do want you to be concerned about that. You know there is a federal law about whiskey stamps. I want you to be right careful about them Treasury agents. We've got a couple here that we've turned into pets, but you might not have any out there that will turn out like that.'
Longarm pulled a face. He said, 'Aw, Mr. Colton, I ain't never seen a federal agent in that part of the country. It's rough country, and a federal man wouldn't dare show his face around there. They're all too scared, a bunch of cowards, anyway.'
'Well, I don't think much of these two supposed to be putting us in jail, either.' He gave a cackle.
Longarm said, 'But I appreciate the advice, sir. And you can depend on me. I am going to be right careful about how I handle any Treasury agents I run into.'
He walked back to his cabin feeling about four times the hypocrite, but he didn't see what else he could do. He had to play this string out and see if he couldn't make matters come out right in the end. He had resolved that, if he could, he would avoid bringing any trouble to the Coltons. The Treasury agents were another matter. He was going to have to work around it somehow, and he didn't know how, to where he could have Mr. Colton summon the two men. That's when he would show his hand. He was going to arrest them on the spot and take them back to Denver, Colorado, and shove them in Billy Vail's face and say, 'Look, here the crooks are. You sent me down there into a bear trap. Now I've brought you the bear.'
He really didn't feel like seeing anyone that day. He was embarrassed about the whole matter, and he certainly didn't want to see Sally and he certainly didn't want to see the old man and have to tell him more lies. The hell of it was, he had come to like the family, with the exception of Mark. They were good folks. They might not be as well- dressed or as well-mannered and their eyes might be set a little too close on their face, but they weren't harmful and they weren't vicious and he really didn't believe that they were criminals. When he pursued a man, he pursued that outlaw with a vengeance and with conviction that whatever he had to do to bring an end to that man's career of harming others was right and just. He didn't feel that way about the Coltons. He didn't know exactly how he was going to do it, but he was going to try to cut the bad ones out of the herd and leave the rest.
He got through the rest of the day by staying in the cabin and just showing up for meals. He spoke very little and kept his attention on his food. Sally kept her eyes on him and the old man made friendly conversation. It was a very embarrassing time. After lunch, John had suggested that he and Longarm go out and kick up some quail. 'We could get a couple of dozen for supper. You ain't had good eating until you've seen how Rebecca stews them quail with rice. You talk about some good eating.'
Longarm had begged off by saying that he was wearing riding boots and didn't feel like doing any walking.
John had said, 'You ain't got that much walking to do, not with the dogs we've got. They'll have four or five coveys pointed out and spotted up within two hundred yards of the house. Besides that...' and he had given Mark a look, '... it'll put a shotgun in your hands in case you need one.'
But he had still begged off, saying that he was tired from the night before and wanted a nap.
Supper hadn't been much better, but he managed to bring it off a little better than lunch. One of the women had began giggling about how quiet he was. She said, 'He's scared already. Reckon what it'll be when the preacher gets in front of him. Reckon someone'll have to hold him up? Stand him up there and then work his jaw and tell him what words to say?'
The whole table had laughed and Longarm had turned crimson. He could feel the flush on his face, feel it burning all the way down to his feet.
The old man had cackled. He said, 'Now, y'all leave my new son-in-law alone. A man's got a right to get a little fidgety when he sees that horse collar coming. Hell, if anybody knows how a mule feels, it's a married man. Gonna spend the rest of his life pulling a plow. Now, y'all just leave him alone.'
Longarm had been grateful. He had slept that night in comparative peace. The problem was still not resolved, but at least no one came bursting through the door with a shotgun.
For a little while before he went to sleep, he had contemplated what it would be like to be married to Sally. He had an idea she'd make a perfect wife. He didn't think, however, she'd be so eager to marry him once she found out that he was a United States deputy marshal and spent about twenty-nine days out of every thirty away from home. He didn't think she'd be very interested in being married to a man who had three or four bullet-hole scars on his body as well as a couple of knife slashes. She also might not be very interested in being married to a man who liked women as well as he did and would expect him to be celibate all the time he was gone. No, he really wasn't husband material, any way you looked at it. It pained him that he was going to be hurting her and giving her disappointment. She obviously wanted a man, and she obviously loved to be with a man. He didn't know of too many women he had ever met who took such joy out of making love, and from the way she talked, it was something she seldom had a chance to engage in.
Well, he thought, that was the problem of being a member of a large clan like the Coltons. It would be very difficult for anyone in those mountains to be good enough for her. He figured most of the attraction he held for her was that he was not from the Ozarks, that he was from Arizona. He was different. He was a strange new face. He'd like to believe otherwise. He'd like to believe he was as handsome as she thought he was, but he knew it wasn't true.
To his great relief, Frank Carson rode in early the next afternoon. At least now, Longarm thought, there would be another strange face for the clan to occupy their minds with. He saw Carson come riding in through the window of the cabin. He saw him tie his horse up in front of the big house and then turn and walk toward the cabin. Longarm was glad of that. If he had gotten word accidentally or by mistake from Billy Vail about Longarm's true identity, he would have gone straight on into the big house and told the Coltons. But now he was walking straight toward the cabin with his saddlebags over his shoulders. Longarm could see a valise tied to the back of Carson's
