consequences. As it had turned out, he and Aurora could have easily been killed.
Flint hopped agilely across the logs back to shore and came up to Longarm and Aurora. 'I'll have some of the boys start going through the cabin,' he said. 'We'll salvage as much as we can, Miz Mcentire.'
'Thank you,' said Aurora. 'I think... I think I'll go over to the mess hall and sit down for a little while.'
'Good idea,' Longarm said. He turned to Flint and went on, 'I'd appreciate it if you'd send a man upstream to where that boom got loose, find out if anybody up there saw anything suspicious.'
Flint nodded. 'That's what I figured to do. What about you, Marshal?' His tone was faintly challenging.
'I was about to head for Kinsman's spread when that boom rammed the cabin. Reckon that's what I'll go ahead and do.'
'Are you going to arrest him?' Again the challenge was in Flint's voice.
'Not without some proof,' Longarm said flatly.
Flint glared at him for a second, then turned away to get the rest of the men busy on their tasks. Some of them headed back into the mill to keep it going, while the others began picking through the rubble of the cabin, trying to retrieve anything that could still be used.
Longarm walked with Aurora over to the mess hall. 'Don't mind Mr. Flint,' she said. 'He's just worried.'
Longarm wasn't sure if that was it or not. Flint had acted so upset and worried that Longarm had to wonder if the man possessed feelings for Aurora above and beyond those of a foreman for his boss. She'd been a widow for a couple of years, she had said. Maybe Flint had decided it was time to change that.
With that speculation in his mind, Longarm said his goodbyes to Aurora and swung up onto the roan, which thankfully hadn't jerked its reins loose from the hitching rack and run off when the boom crashed into the cabin. He took the trail on which Flint had led him up to the camp earlier in the afternoon, and when he got to the guard shack, the man who had accosted him on his arrival stepped out of the shack and nodded to him. 'Heading back to town, Marshal?' he asked.
'Not just yet,' Longarm told the man, recalling that his name was Andy. 'Can you tell me how to get to Matt Kinsman's ranch?'
Andy frowned darkly at that question, and Longarm went on. 'Your boss and Mr. Flint know I'm headed there. I'm trying to get to the bottom of the trouble around here.'
'Then you're headed for the right place,' said Andy. 'Kinsman and his damned cowboys are to blame for everything that's gone wrong around here lately.'
And Andy didn't even know about the latest incident, Longarm thought. If he did, he would have been ready to go to the Diamond K too. Only his goal would have been the exact opposite of Longarm's. Andy and the other loggers wanted a shooting war.
Unless he was able to come up with some answers pretty quick, Longarm told himself grimly, that was probably just what they were all going to get.
Matt Kinsman's spread wasn't hard to find. Longarm would have been able to locate it even without the directions furnished by Andy. Once he reached the main trail, he continued north for another half mile, then veered to the west on a narrower path.
Kinsman's range was fenced, and Longarm had to pass through a gate in the barbed wire. He latched it behind him and rode on, but he hadn't gone far when he heard a horse coming from the other direction.
He reined in and waited. There was a straight stretch of trail in front of him and whoever was coming, Longarm preferred to get a good look at them, rather than running head-on into them at a bend in the trail. The rider came into view a moment later, mounted on an Appaloosa. Longarm thought for a second it was a young man. Then he saw the long red hair falling free underneath the flat-crowned hat. He saw as well the way smallish breasts bobbed enticingly under a rather tight man's shirt.
That was Matt Kinsman's daughter riding toward him, Longarm realized, the young woman he had seen being met at the train station in Timber City by some of Kinsman's cowhands. The pace of the Appaloosa faltered a little as she noticed him sitting there waiting for her, but she came on steadily after that, startled perhaps by his unexpected presence but obviously unafraid to confront him.
He saw why she wasn't afraid of him when she drew rein some thirty feet away and slipped a Winchester carbine from a saddle sheath. With a smooth, crisp movement, she worked the carbine's lever action and pointed the barrel at him. 'Who are you and what are you doing here?' she called.
'It's not very hospitable to point a gun at a fella when he hasn't given you any reason for doing it,' Longarm pointed out, keeping his hands in plain sight as he rested them on the saddle horn.
'You're on Diamond K range,' said the young woman, 'and we've had more than our share of troubles lately. If you're a rustler or an outlaw, the only thing waiting for you around here is a slug.'
Her voice was taut, angry. Longarm recalled the ticket agent in Timber City mentioning that Kinsman had had some problems of his own recently, such as rustlers and possibly poisoned wells. Must've been something to that, Longarm reflected, because the young woman was clearly on edge. At this moment, she would have just as soon shot him as looked at him.
Longarm didn't want that, of course--but he didn't want to reveal his true identity either. Aurora Mcentire, Jared Flint, and some of the other members of the lumber crew knew that he was a lawman, but no one here on the Diamond K did. Might be best to keep it that way for a spell.
'I'm no outlaw,' he said, 'and I've never rustled a steer in my life. I'm just a chuck-line rider, looking for a riding job.'
'Who told you to come out here?'
'Fella in town said the Diamond K was the best spread in these parts,' Longarm replied honestly. 'Thought I'd come out and talk to the boss, see if maybe there was a job to be had.' He added dryly, 'You ain't him, are you?'
The carbine's barrel lowered slightly. 'You already know a man named Matt Kinsman owns this ranch. He's my father. I'm Molly Kinsman.'
