suspicious and spooky. A Mexican had one each by the head harness, but they were still having trouble controlling them. They got the mules up in front of the bathtub, and then tried to back them into place, but the mules weren’t having any of it. They snorted and reared and kicked out with their hind legs.
Higgins said matter-of-factly, “Them mules ain’t never seen no bathtub before, let alone set in to pull one. Mules as a general rule don’t like new thangs, and that bathtub is mighty new to them.”
Longarm could see bandannas hanging out of the Mexicans’ pockets. He said to Higgins, “Tell them to blindfold them.”
Higgins spoke to them in Spanish and they nodded in agreement and said, “Si, si. Es bueno.”
Working with one mule at a time, they were able to cover their eyes with their big handkerchiefs. As soon as the mules couldn’t see, they got quiet. Higgins laughed. “You must be an old mule man yoreself.”
Longarm shook his head. “Never handled one in my life. This will be the first, heaven help me. But it works with horses.” He nodded at the hammer and chisel one of the Mexicans had given Higgins. “Hadn’t you better knock a hole in the front before we get the mules too close?”
“That’s good thinkin’, Marshal. Right good thinkin’.” He stepped to the front of the tub and measured with his eye. “Say you want the front to ride off the ground a mite?”
“I think that would be good,” Longarm said. “But I think we are guessing here. You ain’t never hooked mules up to a bathtub and I never drove mules before, bathtub or not.”
Higgins said, “I figure about here.” He put his finger on a spot about five to six inches down from the top of the lower end.
“Looks fine to me,” Longarm said. “Like I say, I think we are guessing.”
Higgins set his chisel point and then struck the other end with the hammer. The galvanized tin dented, but it didn’t break. “Tougher than it looks.”
He set the point of the chisel in the dent and then hit it another blow. A small hole appeared in the surface of the bathtub. Higgins leaned around to look inside. ‘Bout one more ought to do her.”
With the next blow, a hole about the size of a quarter appeared on the inside wall of the bathtub. Higgins looked at it. “That ought to ‘bout do it. Trace chain will go through there right snug like.”
Longarm watched as he took the end of the trace chain, a linked chain with links about an inch and a half long and three quarters of an inch wide, and ran it through the hole. When he had about a foot inside the tub he looked at Longarm. “Now you got to say how close you want the front of this tub to the end of them mules.”
Longarm frowned. “Hell, Herman, I ain’t got the slightest idea. Have your men start backing the mules up and you take up the slack while I see.”
Higgins spoke to the Mexicans, and they urged the mules backwards. The animals stepped backward trembling and reluctant. As they came closer, Higgins pulled on the trace chain that ran to the singletree, a wooden device that kept the mules spaced apart, taking up the slack and letting it lay in the bottom of the tub. Ordinarily, if they had been hitching a wagon or a buckboard, it would have been done with leather straps. The trace chain was only a safety measure in case one of the traces, or leather straps, should break. But since there was no other way to attach the bathtub, they were using the chain only, which gave Longarm very limited control over the team.
When the mules were about three feet from the front of the tub, Higgins told the Mexicans to stop. He said, “I wouldn’t jam ‘em up any tighter than that.”
“Have they got room to run snubbed up that close?” Longarm asked.
Higgins spat. He’d said he always got a mouthful of saliva when he was nervous and the entire affair was making him nervous. “Most folks get a dry mouth when they get jittery. I get spit.”
Now he said, “They got just about the right amount of room to run. You get any further back and they likely to sling you around like a turnip on the end of a string.”
Longarm shrugged. “Hell, I’d rather go by train, but it don’t look like I got much choice. Hook ‘em up.”
Higgins took a big nail out of his pocket and ran it through the link just inside the hole in the tub. Then he took a pair of pliers out of his back pocket and bent the nail so it couldn’t slip out of the link. He gave a yank on the chain from the outside of the tub and pronounced it solid. “That chain won’t break and that tub won’t break. These here mules is hitched to this tub until somebody comes along and unhitches ‘em.” He peered at Longarm. “Course I ain’t promising that you is gonna stay part of the outfit. Right now these mules don’t know what they hitched to. I ain’t right shore how they gonna react once they find out. You better go ahead and get in there and I’ll hand you the reins.”
One of the Mexicans said something to Higgins, and he nodded. “Bueno, muy bueno. Vamoose!”
The Mexican tore off for the barn, and Longarm asked what all that was about. Higgins said, “We got an old coach whip in the feed house. Miguel thought you might make good use of it.”
“What’s a coach whip?” Longarm thought he knew, but he wanted to be sure.
“Aw, it’s a little thin pole ‘bout six feet long with about a three-foot leather snapper on the end. See, I don’t think you goin’ to be able to steer these here mules as much as you’d like to think. So I reckon you are gonna have to lean forward and slap one of ‘em on the jaw opposite the way you want to go. You gonna have four reins, but you likely to pull yore arms outten the sockets tryin’ to get these here cold-jawed sonsabitches to gee and haw.”
Longarm stepped gingerly into the bathtub and worked his way into a sitting position. He was up close to the front of the tub with his legs sort of crossed under him. Higgins walked down by the side of the mules, straightening the harness and letting out the reins. He handed them to Longarm. There were four, two for each mule. Longarm said, “I ain’t all that sure I know how to handle this bunch of leather.”
Higgins shook his head sorrowfully. “Unfortunately, Marshal, ain’t nobody can teach you. Not in that getup you be in. I reckon you are gonna learn on the job. Here comes yore coach whip.”
He took the leather-wrapped thin wand from the Mexican and handed it to Longarm. He said, “Try that on for size. See if you can reach them mules’ heads.”
Longarm extended the coach whip. It went very easily up to where he could pop either mule on either side of
