Longarm said, “Just be sure you keep that in mind.” He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his badge. He laid it on the table. “Herman, I’m a deputy United States marshal and I need to use your telegraph wire on official business. And since you are a transportation outfit that is regulated by the federal government, you are obliged to aid me in any way you can.”
Higgins stared at the badge with his mouth open. “My stars and bars and Gertie’s girdle! Take a look at that thar! Hot damn, I knowed you was somebody special minute you come staggerin’ in off that desert. Somethin’ told me to treat this feller right because he is a he-horse! An’ by golly, I was right! Wait’ll I tell the missus!”
Longarm wagged a finger at him. “No, no. This is between me and you.”
Higgins’s face fell. “You mean to say I got me a real live federal marshal here an’ I can’t even tell my ol’ woman? Glory be! You have any idea how wearin’ this place is on a body? Biggest excitement we get is a sandstorm, an’ here you come an’ I can’t even say nothin’. Pshaw!”
“Herman, this is important government business. It might be that it doesn’t matter who knows, but right now I’m kind of operating in the dark, so I think it’s best just to play my cards pretty close to my shirt buttons. You take my meaning?”
Higgins’s eyes got round. “Boy, howdy, yessir, I do, Mis-Marshal Long. I …” He suddenly stopped and stared at Longarm. “Yore last name be Long, don’t it?”
“Yes. So what?”
Higgins said slowly, “They is a right famous federal marshal got the nickname of Longarm. Now that wouldn’t be you, would it?”
Longarm shrugged. “I get called that from time to time.”
Higgins let out a long breath. “Laws a-mercy! Dog my cats if that don’t beat all. I got the very marshal they call Longarm settin’ right here at my table! Man that has caught more outlaws than the whole of the Texas and Arizona Rangers put together! You talk about your red-letter days! Whooooeeee!”
Longarm smiled slightly. “Herman, you are going to have to collect yourself here. Now where is your telegraph set up?”
Higgins jerked his head toward a door. “Back there in our livin’ quarters. I bet what you are gonna send is gonna be real secret, ain’t it?”
Longarm frowned. “Well, I’m seeking information. It ain’t all that secret.”
“Boy, I’d give a dollar to know what it was all about.”
Longarm stared at him in disbelief. “But Herman, you will know. You are the one going to send and receive for me. I don’t know how to work one of those damn things.”
Higgins’s eyes got big again. “Great sakes alive! That’s right. I’m gonna be in the know. Hot damn!”
Longarm looked at the door to the living quarters. “You said that girl was back there?”
“Yeah, she be layin’ on the bed. Or she was.”
“Well, I’d rather not have anybody back there who isn’t necessary. Which means just you and me. Like I say, this may come to nothing, but I’d still rather keep it mum.”
Higgins began moving around vigorously inside his clothes. He got an earnest look on his face. “Wa’l, you can count on me, Marshal Long, Longarm.” He shook his head. “Damn, I can’t believe you are settin’ under my very roof. Why, you are more famous than Billy the Kid or William Cody or any of ‘em. My dogs and cats!”
“I need to do this pretty quick,” Longarm said. But in the back of his mind he was wishing that his boss, Chief Marshall Billy Vail, could hear what Higgins had said.
Higgins immediately leapt to his feet. “Right you are, Cap’n. You just step this way.”
Longarm followed him through an open door and into a small sitting room. It was rough and small, but Longarm could easily see the touches Sylvia had added to make the place more livable. Over in the corner Longarm saw a little table and, sitting on it, a telegraph key. A wire ran in through the small window to make the connection to the line running outside.
Higgins had gone to the door of another room and Longarm followed him, looking over his shoulder. Inside there was a woman lying on the bed. At first she appeared quite plain and a good ways past her youth. But she jumped to her feet as soon as Higgins opened his mouth, and stood beside the bed smoothing her skirt. Then he could see that she was no more than twenty-five or twenty-six and quite appealing. She wasn’t beautiful, but she had a buxom figure and a pretty enough face. There was something hard in her eyes and in the set of her mouth, but Longarm thought that was just brought on by her recent hard luck.
Higgins said, “Miss Rita, I hate to disturb you but me and this gentleman got business back here. If you could wait out yonder in the common room I’d be much obliged. There is that padded bench if you are still a little light- headed.”
“No,” she said, “I’m fine. Tell your wife how much I appreciate her kindness.”
Longarm liked her voice. It was soft and controlled and sounded as if the woman had been around people of quality. He said, “Sorry to disturb you.”
She ran a cool, appraising look over him as she walked past. “Don’t concern yourself,” she said. “I was ready to get up.”
They waited until she was through the door and in the public room, and then Higgins went to the door of their private quarters and closed it. It was a good, heavy door, and Longarm felt they couldn’t be overheard. He said, “Mr. Higgins, if you’ll take your place at the key, I’ll tell you what to say.”
As if he was about to perform some sort of ceremony, Higgins went solemnly to the little table and sat down, adjusting his chair just so. Over his shoulder he said. “I got to get on line an’ give the man at the other end my signature. First thang you got to do. It’s by the book.”
“You do that.”
With a certain awkwardness Higgins tapped out a few words with the key. Longarm didn’t know what he had
