Both gals had somehow wound up snuggled against Longarm on either side as he reclined with his back propped high enough on his piled-up baggage for him to face the fainter black oval of the one entrance, gun in hand as he rested his weary wrist in his own crotch. On his right little Matty was softly blowing bubbles as she somehow managed to doze on and off. Minerva's straw-blond head rested lighter against his left shoulder until her occasional stifled sobs inspired him to wrap a soothing left arm around her trembling torso and point out that the longer the night dragged on the better their chances got. He said, 'If the majority was in favor of killing us, they'd have made a play for it by now.'
Her teeth chattered on her when she first tried to answer. Then she got them under control again and murmured, 'I'm not this terrified of the Indians who don't want to kill us. I can't help thinking how easy it would be for the ones who spiked our supper with arsenic! Do you think they think we're alive or dead in here by now?'
To which he could only reply, 'Don't know. So I can't say. We get a lot of crooks who can't resist coming back for a peek at the scene of their crime. But the smarter ones know better. I'm betting on old Pawkigoopy as the author of our woes. Kiowa medicine men are said to use more scientific curses than your average rattle-shaker. If it's him, he's likely been at such sneaky stuff long enough to stay clear and sit tight till somebody else finds his professed enemies laid out stiff by his visions. It's all right for a medicine man to have grim visions. Sitting Bull told everyone he'd had a vision of soldiers all covered with blood. But he never said he'd used poison or even chants on Custer and the Seventh Cav. They admire a prophet, but wizards make 'em proddy.'
She didn't answer for a moment. She was probably considering what he'd just said, a rare trait in even a halfways pretty young gal. He knew he'd judged her right when she said, 'It would be even more foolish for our secret enemy to fire bullets through these thin hide walls, wouldn't it?'
He patted her far shoulder and said, 'Mighty foolish. He'd have no way to aim at anyone in particular, whilst for all he knew, he'd be giving his fool self away by attacking folks he'd already killed.'
She asked, 'Then why do you have that six-shooter in your lap?'
He chuckled and replied, 'Ain't in my lap. Got the muzzle resting on the blanket under me. I meant what I said just now about nobody with a lick of sense creeping in on us tonight. I got my gun out for two simple reasons. I have the gun to work with, and this cruel world is afflicted with murderous fools.'
She timidly asked how often he ran into them. He told her they were reasonably rare, but that his job required him to brush with more than his share. When she asked him to elaborate, he didn't want to brag on some of his wilder cases, but settled for explaining how he'd wound up over this way to begin with.
She sounded dubious as she asked him if he was sure he'd never even met that wayward wife of Attila Homagy.
He sighed and said, 'That's what makes my situation so awkward. Nine out of ten folks, just hearing his wild accusations, tend to wonder if there ain't at least a spark to go with all that smoke. I can say I've never laid eyes on Magda Homagy until I'm blue in the face and no judge or jury will ever find that jealous maniac guilty if ever he manages to get the drop on me.'
Minerva proved she was smart enough to teach school by whistling silently and saying, 'But if you killed him, even if he drew first, everyone would say you were a home-wrecking killer!'
Longarm sighed and said, 'My boss wants me to lie low over here in the Indian Territory whilst he tries to find out who Homagy can really thank for his lack of domestic bliss.'
They both laughed as the same thought hit them at the same time. Matty stirred in her sleep and asked what was so funny. Longarm told her softly to go back to sleep as Minerva murmured, 'This sure seems a fine way to lie low. How on earth does that child manage to sleep so soundly at a time like this?'
Longarm said, 'She's likely tired. Her mother said she was sort of young and carefree. That's how we got you into this, I regret to say. As things turned out, I could have got in this much trouble with no help from either of you ladies.'
Minerva sighed in weary agreement and murmured, 'It sounded like such a lark when they asked me to chaperone the two of you, as if any of us are ever going to get the chance to be naughty again!'
He started to point out there'd be plenty of time to act as naughty as she cared to in times to come. Then he couldn't help wondering if she was trying to come. It would have been rude to ask a lady why she was moving and rustling like that in the dark. She must have been able to tell from his awkward silence what he suspected she was up to. For she suddenly stopped, sighed, and murmured, 'I must be going crazy. My Aunt Ida said the little girl across the way went crazy because she couldn't leave herself alone until the right man came along.'
Longarm thought it might sound cruel to agree with a lady who was already confounded enough. He quietly said, 'There seems to be something about feeling hurt or scared that makes folks sort of, well... fidgety. Wounded soldiers are always proposing to their nurses, and there's some argument as to whether hanged men stiffen up so silly before or after they hit the end of the rope.'
She softly asked, 'Are you saying all this has made you feel more amorous than usual, Custis?'
He chuckled and said, 'I always feel more amorous than usual. But I got to cover that doorway, no offense.'
She stiffened and demanded, 'Did you think for one moment I was suggesting anything improper, good sir? I was only asking a question, not extending an invitation!'
He tried to say he hadn't meant to sound dirty. But she'd already rolled away in the darkness to flop down on some piled buffalo robes, and after a suspenseful silence he could hear her breathing harder in time with the softer sounds of what seemed like a frisky puppy thumping its tail by the back door to be let out.
He was mighty tempted to just roll over and help her scratch what ailed her, but he didn't see how he could let little Matty's head fall that far without waking her.
That conjured up a really silly scene in Longarm's head. But he managed not to laugh out loud as he considered how the sassy little gal Minerva had come along to chaperone was really chaperoning her elders without half trying, or really knowing what was going on.
As he heard Minerva moaning in the darkness, 'Custis, please!' he softly murmured, 'You'll be sorry you ever said that once we get out of this fix alive. But no offense, this is about the last time or place I'd ever risk getting caught with my pants down!'
CHAPTER 14
