toward the door.
Chapter 5
Higgins came through the door intent on following his wife. Longarm grabbed his arm as he passed and then put a finger to his lips. He stepped over and shut the door to the common room, and then crossed to the door to the Higginses’ bedroom and shut that door. Higgins was staring at him, mystified. Longarm said, “Who are those men out there?”
Higgins shrugged. “Jus’ some fellers ridin’ through, I reckon.”
“Never saw them before?”
Higgins shook his head. “Not that I recollect.”
“You get many strangers passing through here like that?”
Higgins scratched his head and frowned. “is this law work? Is this serious bid’ness?”
“It could be. Did you get a look at their horses?”
“I seen ‘em when they rode up. Plain ol’ horses, near as I can figure. Didn’t look stolen if that be what you mean. Though I wouldn’t know how to tell a stolen horse. I was standin’ out front so I seen ‘em from a patch away.”
“Which way were they coming from?”
Higgins frowned in concentration. “I’d say more from the west, though it be hard to say. They is some bad ground due south of here, so they might have swung around that.”
“They have any pack animals with them?”
“No, now that you mention it, they didn’t.” Higgins scratched his head harder. “Which is a strange thing. Most folks don’t get off in this country without a pack animal totin’ some extra water and vittles.”
“You never answered when I asked you if you get many strangers passing through here.”
Higgins stared at the door to the common room as if there might be an answer there. “Wa’l, now and again, from time to time, different folks who have had bid’ness down south at the mines come north by this route. Generally the miners take the stage, but now and again a sportin’ genn’lman or a drummer hawkin’ some gadget or a cowhand will come this way, riding from station to station.” He stared at the door again. “Come to think of it, that do be a little strange, three hombres jus’ showin’ up like that out of nowhere. Wonder who in hell they are?”
“What’d they want?”
Higgins was looking more and more concerned. “Wa’l, first thing they wanted a drink of whiskey, an’ then they wanted to know if I had any beds. When I said no, they wondered if they could spread they bedrolls in the lee of the buildin’ in case a wind come up. Said they’d like to make a fahr and would be glad to pay for the wood ‘cause they knowed it must come pretty dear in a place like this.”
“Didn’t ask to eat?”
“Yeah, they done that.” Higgins nodded. “I tol’ ‘em my old woman could fix them some grits and beans and maybe a pan of cornbread. Nothin’ fancy. They said that would be fine.” Higgins glanced at the door again. “Seem like mighty nice fellers. Maybe they ain’t nothin’ wrong with them at all.”
Longarm turned and looked as if he too thought studying the door might tell him something. But then he shook his head. “Herman, I can’t have them hanging around the station, not with that stage due tomorrow.”
“You reckon it might be a bullion run?” Higgins’s eyes got big.
“I don’t know. And neither do you. But there appear to be a few too many coincidences happening around here. Did their horses look hard-used?”
Higgins thought. “Wa’l, fact of the bid’ness is I can’t say. Didn’t notice. Want me to go take a look?”
“No. But they want to overnight here?”
“That’s what they sayin’.”
“And going to travel in the heat of the day tomorrow. Don’t that strike you strange?”
“Wa’l, yessir, now that you mention it. How we goin’ to get rid of ‘em? You want me to go out there and tell ‘em to clear off?”
Longarm shook his head. “No. You don’t have any reason.” He unbuckled his gunbelt and walked over and laid it on the divan. He had been thinking of how to approach the situation. “At least you don’t have a reason right now. But I’m going to give you one.”
“What would that be?”
Longarm unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and started rolling up his sleeves. “I’m going to go out there and start a fight with them. Do you have a shotgun?”
“‘Course. Place like this you’d always have a shotgun. Double-barreled, twelve-gauge. How come you took yore gunbelt off, Marshal?”
“Because I got good reason to think those hombres are gunmen. They wear their revolvers like pistoleros. I hate to do it, but I’m going to get into a fistfight. And I ain’t been in a fistfight in a hell of a long time, but I don’t want guns getting into it. It could be they are innocent of anything except stealing jam, and I don’t want to kill one for nothing.”
Higgins was starting to look nervous but excited. “What’ll you be wanting me to do?”
Longarm said, “Well, there are three of them. One is pretty small and the other is a little pudgy, but there is one my size and maybe a few good years younger. I can’t whip all three, but I can start a ruckus. Soon as I get things going you come running out with your scattergun and go to yelling for us to cease and desist.” He saw the confused look on Higgins’s face. “Go to yelling for us to quit it, to stop. Say there ain’t no fighting allowed in the place and that I am your employee and you ain’t going to stand for them beating up on me. Shoot a barrel into the
