Lucy’s mouth tightened, but she did as Lady Beechmuir asked. Another wave of dizziness washed over Longarm as Lucy helped him sit up. Nausea that was even worse than he had experienced after eating that bad steak gripped him for a moment. But it passed quickly, and with Lucy’s strong arms supporting him, he was able to remain sitting up.
He could look around the camp then, and he wasn’t surprised to see Benjamin Thorp, John Booth, and the two servants clustered by the fire. The Rocking T hand who had survived the afternoon, a fella called Randall, was nearby tending to the hobbled horses. Everyone else was looking at Longarm with expectant expressions on their faces, and he realized they were waiting for him to say something.
“Much obliged to all of you for helping me out,” he managed with a nod. “I reckon I can guess what happened.”
“Lucy an’ me come along when some sidewinder was tryin’ to bushwhack you,” said Catamount Jack. “We threw some slugs ‘cross the river and run him off.”
“Had to be Rainey,” Longarm said grimly.
“What about the Brazos Devil?” Thorp asked from the other side of the fire.
Gingerly, Longarm shook his head. The memory of everything that had happened over the past few days had flooded back into his mind by now, and his mental processes were fairly clear as he said, “I haven’t heard any mention of the Brazos Devil ever using a Winchester, have you?”
Thorp inclined his head in acknowledgment of Longarm’s point. He said, “You’re probably right. But if Rainey ran into the Devil before and was so scared he nearly shit his pants—pardon me, ladies—why would he come back into this part of the country?”
“He knew I’d be on his trail,” Longarm said, “and he knows this Brazos River country better than anywhere else. I reckon he figured he could hide out easier here and avoid running into that monster at the same time.” Longarm pointed to the coffeepot sitting in the embers at the edge of the fire. “I could use a cup of that coffee.”
Ghote poured it for him and brought it to him, bending gracefully to hand it to him. Longarm recalled the “medicine” he had seen the servant giving to Lady Beechmuir, and wondered what the stuff was. If it cured headaches, Longarm could use some right about now to go with the coffee. He wasn’t going to ask about it, however, knowing from the way Helene had acted that she didn’t want her husband to know about what she was taking. Could be too that it was laudanum, and Longarm didn’t want any part of that. He would just put up with the pounding in his skull, he decided as he sipped the strong black brew.
Longarm shifted his gaze to Catamount Jack and Lucy. “Did either of you get a good look at the bushwhacker when you opened up on him?”
“Nope,” Lucy replied. “Pa and me heard the shootin’ and rode over to the river to see what was goin’ on. We got there just in time to see you go tumblin’ out of your saddle.”
Catamount Jack took up the story. “Saw powder smoke comin’ from the trees on the opposite bank, so we unlimbered our Sharpses and started throwin’ lead. Don’t know if we ever hit the sumbitch or not, but a couple of minutes later we heard hoofbeats ‘cross the river. Reckon he lit a shuck out o’ there once he saw what he was up against.”
“It was Rainey,” Longarm said with a nod. “Had to be. Nobody else had any reason to ambush us.”
Thorp said, “Lord Beechmuir and I arrived a few minutes later. We had heard the shooting, of course, and we abandoned the search and came as soon as we could. When we got there, I thought you were dead, Long, just like poor Benson. There was blood all over your head.” He pointed at Lucy with a thumb. “This young lady was determined to patch you up, though. She said she wasn’t going to let you die.”
Longarm looked at Lucy, who seemed a bit uncomfortable with that revelation. “I could tell you’d be all right,” she said gruffly. “You ain’t the first fella I ever saw who’d been creased by a bullet.”
“Hell, the gal’s doctored me back to health when I was a heap worse off,” Catamount Jack said, pride in his voice. “Why, I remember one time up in Wyoming when I got to rasslin’ with this ol’ silver-tip grizzly-“
“Nobody wants to hear about that, Pa,” Lucy broke in. “What’s important is that Marshal Long will be all right if he takes it easy for a few days.”
Longarm wasn’t sure he had a few days in which to rest. Not with Rainey still on the loose, Thorp’s wife still missing, and a monster still roaming around the area. By morning, he would have to be able to ride again, concussed or not.
He looked at Thorp and asked, “Did you find those tracks in the riverbed?”
Thorp nodded, a look of excitement on his face. “We saw them, all right. Once we’d buried Benson and set up camp and Miss Vermilion was tending to you, Lord Beechmuir, Catamount Jack, and I went to take a better look.”
Somehow, the idea of Catamount Jack and Lord Beechmuir hunting the creature side by side struck Longarm as a little funny, but once he thought about it, there were some similarities between the two men. Both of them were hunters, both devoted to stalking their quarry through just about any kind of wilderness.
“Unfortunately, we lost the trail on the other side of the river,” Lord Beechmuir said. “Damn bad luck, if you ask me.”
“The varmint went traipsin’ over a big stretch o’ limestone up on one of them cliffs overlookin’ the river,” said Catamount Jack. “Couldn’t pick up his trail again. He’s a slippery cuss, that’un.”
Longarm heard the frustration in the mountain man’s voice. He knew the feeling. To have had Mitch Rainey locked up in jail, only to lose him again … that was the kind of thing that would have had Longarm tearing his hair out by the roots had he been the type to give in to such emotional displays.
Thorp took a cigar from inside his coat, lit it with a flaming twig from the fire, and blew out a cloud of smoke. “We’re going to join forces with Vermilion and his daughter,” he said. “I brought along enough supplies to last for several days. I’m not going back until I find that beast and find out what happened to my wife. But I can send Randall back to town with you and Lady Beechmuir if you want, Long.”
“Wait just a moment,” Helene protested before Longarm could say anything. “I haven’t asked to return to town, have I?”
