much, and it only came to me a few minutes ago that Tennessee used to be Cherokee country and that I'd been told, marching through it, how Chickamauga, where we fought that battle, meant Dead River in Cherokee!'
He pointed his warm pistol barrel at the naked Cherokee cadaver as he said, 'Cherokee is related to Iroquois and Pawnee the way Comanche is related to Shoshoni, Aztec, and such. A lawman would play hell trying to account for Shoshoni building cities down Mexico way. But at least Pawnee were possible around here.'
He pointed at the dead Indian agent to add, 'It worked even better as soon as I suspected we were dealing with Cherokee and a white mastermind who literally liked to screw the Cherokee.'
One of the troopers said he'd heard young Rogers was like that.
Longarm said, 'We might have been able to charge him with crimes against nature on federal property. I doubt he even knew Fred Ryan tried to gun me twice tonight. It looks as if Ryan killed his lover boy for the same reason he gunned that clerk across the way. To shut them both up. So's he could play innocent.'
The provost marshal barged in with more troops, demanding answers. Longarm pointed to the O.D. and said, 'The lieutenant knows as much as me so far. I got to get up to your Signal Corps installation and see if anyone I wired earlier can tell me anything more.'
He pushed his way out as the O.D. started explaining the mess in the B.I.A. office. The provost marshal must not have been satisfied. He caught up with Longarm up the line, just as the tall deputy read the last of the few telegrams waiting there for him.
Waving a penciled transcription at the older army man, Longarm said, 'It sure beats all how things fall in place once you figure the overall pattern of the puzzle. Mud Creek identifies a shotgun messenger who replaced young Quirt McQueen, for no good reason, as a Lester Tenkiller, Tenkiller being a common Cherokee name. Quirt was fired and left to fend for his fool self because Ryan didn't want a witness coming back this way to tell me, in particular, how Ryan had never gone on to Fort Smith with a lady we both knew.'
Longarm picked up another message to make sure of his details as he continued. 'Ryan was whipping back and forth betwixt here and the railroad stop at Atoka. That seems to have been his home plate. He met his Cherokee pals there, picked up mail-order duds for 'em, and-'
'Atoka's one hell of a ride,' the provost marshal said.
Longarm nodded and said, 'Handy to the railroad, though. After that, it's a fair-sized settlement where none of his recruits were apt to meet up with either Comanche Police from this reserve or the Cherokee Police from their own. I just wired the Choctaw Police to be on the lookout for the Lester Tenkiller who comes through there fairly often. I'm letting the three Indian police forces work out the probable suspects Ryan would have recruited around Tahlequah. It'll be good training for all concerned, and we've accounted for the really bad apple in the bunch. Old Ryan must have figured I'd been sent to catch him personal. He was the only one up to anything crooked, involving any Indian Police. As a liaison man he was naturally privy to all the messages sent back and forth. But he must have been afraid he'd missed something.'
Longarm picked up another message and said, 'It's too bad he never read this wire from Denver, ordering me home before I'd recalled the meaning of Chickamauga. That enlisted clerk and the Cherokee breed might have still been alive if old Fred had let sleeping dogs lie. I might have missed his petty extortions entirely if he hadn't scared the shit out of me with his wilder-acting Indians. Or burned my ass when he ran off with a wild newspaper gal he was only interested in getting rid of before she followed up on some gossip about his operation!'
CHAPTER 19
A few days later, along about supper-time at the Brewster Dairy outside Trinidad, the pretty young widow was crossing her barnyard toward the main house when she spied a familiar figure on a chestnut gelding.
Longarm had hired it, along with its stock saddle, at a livery near the depot. He could only hope his own saddle and original baggage was still waiting for him at the Union Depot in Denver. He was wearing his suit and tie again, seeing he was calling on a lady.
As he reined in near her front steps, Cora Brewster hurried to greet him there, saying, 'I was just thinking of you, Deputy Crawford! I wired you in care of Fort Sill, and they wired back that they'd never heard of you!'
Longarm dismounted and started to tether his hired mount to her hitching rail as he awkwardly replied, 'Good help is hard to find these days. I just got back from Fort Sill, after some tedious train transfers. But to tell the truth I spent most of my time with some Indian pals, and I reckon they lost track of me at the fort. You say you were trying to get in touch with me, Miss Cora?'
The young but fully developed brunette in blue calico that matched her eyes dimpled up at him and explained, 'That horrid Longarm's back in Trinidad. They said he'd run off with Magda Homagy, the brute. But he's been sparking another Bohunk girl too young for him by half and the immigrant ladies are all atwitter!'
Longarm nodded gravely and said, 'That accounts for another blond lady who talks funny up Fort Collins way. I've been in touch with my home office by wire, and they just now told me the couple in question produced papers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire when the law paid a call on their rooming house. He used to be some sort of cavalryman they call a Hula Hula Lancer, and his wife had permission to leave as well.'
Cora Brewster said, 'I told you Longarm deserted that other blonde somewhere. Why are you tethering your mount to that post? You surely mean to sup and visit with me a while, don't you?'
He allowed he hadn't made any better plans for that evening. So she led the way back across her barnyard, explaining along the way how she'd just given her two hired men and house-girl the payday evening off. Longarm knew enough about cows to assume her dairy stock had been led into their stalls and milked for the last time that day no later than four in the afternoon. She didn't invite him to stable a pony with her cows. The chestnut gelding wound up in the stable with its own kind to gossip with. He noted with approval she fed them all timothy hay and medium-grade oats.
On the way back to the house Cora explained she'd been planning a light, simple supper for herself alone. He said he'd been stuffing his face with peanuts and such aboard many a train for the past few days. She laughed when she thought back to those few hours they'd done the same in that D&RG club car.
She said, 'It seems so long ago, and as if our time together lasted longer. Isn't it funny how well you seem to get to know a stranger on a train, Deputy Crawford?'
He said it sure was, and added, 'This jasper everyone keeps calling Deputy Custis Long, Miss Cora, you've seen the skirt-chasing cuss in the flesh your ownself? I mean, you'd know him if he rode in to join us for supper this evening?'
She indicated the way to her back steps as she sniffed and told him, 'That'll be the day! You're so right about
