“I think so. I don’t know. He does some funny things with the customs people. He used to get drunk and brag about what they were doing.”
Longarm nodded. He said, “Ah, that’s where he got the papers on the horse.”
She asked, “What papers? What horse?”
Longarm shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“What are you going to catch him for? What crime are you going to charge him with?” she said.
Longarm said, “Well, I’d like to stop him from committing another one. But as it stands now, I’ve got enough on him to put him away for a good long time, including what he’s done to you. Then there’s bigamy and the business of taking a United States deputy marshal hostage. Oh, I’d say the young man has quite a few discards in his pile that he’s going to have to answer for, but right now, my main interest is to stop him in his latest scheme. I think a man’s life might well be in jeopardy, but more than that, I fear that there might be enough cash money involved that it would cause him to try and break from this country and escape abroad either to South America or someplace in Europe, England or such.”
She said, “you know, it’s funny. I don’t hate Richard. I guess I should. I should hope that you hold him down and stick lit cigarettes to him or cigars as he did to me several times. But I don’t. That’s funny, isn’t it?”
Longarm said, “No, some folks are just of a more forgiving nature, I guess.”
They didn’t talk any more for a while. The terrain was beginning to ease and Longarm took hope as the country grew tamer. They were almost onto prairie. With the exception of the mesquite and post oak and the greasewood bushes, it would have been easy going. Now he pressed on more toward the north. one advantage he had about coming in at night was that he would be able to see the lights of Nuevo Laredo and Laredo from quite a distance off. That, however, was about the only advantage he could see. once, after they had been riding on the level prairie for half an hour, his horse suddenly stumbled, and for one sickening moment, Longarm thought he was going down, but then he took three quick steps and righted himself. For a few strides after that, he limped and Longarm thought he had injured a cannon bone in his right front leg. He held his breath for another four or five minutes until the horse settled back into a gait.
Longarm got out his watch and struck a match to see the time. It was a quarter of nine. He wasn’t sure at what time they had left the ranch. He guessed it was somewhere around six. He had estimated it was about a four-hour trip to Nuevo Laredo. That was based on the time they had taken when they had brought him out, but that had been four men on good horses who knew the country. Now they were one man and one woman on two sorry horses and neither one of them knew the country.
Then, at long last, he saw a faint glow on the horizon. If he was correct in his reckoning, they should be seeing the Monterrey Road at any time. It was difficult to tell how far away the lights were; it depended on how clear the air was. Sometimes, in the desert, you could see something that looked a mile or two away and it would turn out to be fifty miles. He knew, of course, that the lights of Laredo weren’t that far away, but right then, he would have liked for them to have been numbered in yards rather than miles.
In another five minutes, they struck the Monterrey Road and turned left and headed toward the glow of the towns. Sarah said faintly, “Is it much farther? I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.”
He pulled her horse up level with his. He said, “Take it easy, Sarah. We’ve got it made now, I think.”
But, almost as he said it, Sarah’s horse gave a sigh and began to quiver. Longarm could feel him—his leg was pressed up against the shoulder of the horse—and he knew the animal was foundering. As quick as he could, he stopped both animals and jumped from his own horse. He ran around to Sarah’s horse, pulling out his penknife as he did. There was one remedy that old ranchers had said would work sometimes. He jammed the blade of his knife into the horse’s neck. Blood gushed forth for a moment and then slowed to a trickle. Little by little, the trembling slowed and the animal seemed to start breathing better. In a frightened voice, Sarah said, “What’s wrong? Why did you stick the knife in him?”
“It’s supposed to cool their blood off. They get overheated and founder and then die. We may have saved him, I don’t know.”
He decided to walk and lead both animals for a ways. He was not particularly fond of walking in high-heeled boots, but right then, he was so scared that the horse would drop dead on him, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t think the animal he was riding could carry double even if that double was someone as light as Sarah.
He walked for thirty minutes, giving both horses a rest as they shambled along. Finally, his feet couldn’t take it any longer and he remounted. They rode on.
The lights were much closer now. He could almost make out the dim outline of buildings. He guessed they were no more than a mile or two from the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo. off to his left, he thought he could see the white house where he had been taken prisoner. It was a strange feeling to see that place after so long. It was dark and looked uninhabited, but he felt sure it was the same place.
He nursed them in, reaching Nuevo Laredo, going slowly through the streets, drawing stares. He supposed Sarah looked odd sitting atop the big long-legged Mexican pony with her shortened stirrups and her dress ballooned up around her hips. She had smoothed it down as best as she could, but he knew she still felt awkward and embarrassed. Normally, he would have walked around the town, but he couldn’t trust the two horses so he took the straightest line he could.
They passed over customs at the International Bridge and kept going. It was another half mile to the best hotel on the border. A big square concrete and brick building that had been welcoming travelers ever since Longarm had been on the border. He didn’t know if he had been recognized by any one in U.S. customs or not. He did know from what Sarah had said that Richard Harding had done criminal business with U.S. customs inspectors, but he believed they knew nothing about Harding’s plans for Earl Combs and his
$200,000.
He pulled up in front of the hotel and eased tiredly out of the saddle. Before he helped Sarah down, he pulled the shotgun out of the boot and crooked it over his arm. Then he reached up, grasped Sarah under the shoulders and lifted her off the mount. She could barely stand. He had to walk her back and forth before she could regain her legs. Finally, he said, “Are you ready to go in and get a bath and a good meal and whatever clean clothes they can scare up for you?”
She looked up at him, her eyes almost glazed over. She said, “Oh my, oh my, oh my.”
He said, “From the look of things, I’ve got to get us separate rooms in here. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “I suppose so.” She suddenly gripped his arm very hard. “But I’m afraid. Richard has friends in this town.”
