“Miss Nelly,” he began. “I understand-“
“You don’t understand anything,” she interrupted. Her eyes examined him from head to toe. “Look at the mess you’ve gotten yourself into!”
“Just doing my job,” he said.
Nelly heaved a deep sigh. “This is going to cost you some money.”
“Everything in this cutthroat town costs money,” he said. “How much?”
“You’re wounded in three places.”
“Just flesh wounds. I’ve had a lot worse and survived by my own means.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he said, reaching into his pocket and dragging out a wad of crumpled bills. “And I’ve only got twenty- three dollars and change.”
“Keep the change.” Nelly reached for the bills, but Longarm clamped his hand down tight on them. “I’ll give you ten dollars. I need to keep some cash, Nelly.”
“Ten dollars? For standing out here and pissing off all my friends and saloon customers?” Nelly scoffed. “Why, that’s ridiculous.”
“Then to hell with it,” he said. “I’ve still got a medicine wagon and there’s boxes of medicine inside. I think I’ll be just fine.”
Nelly shook her head. “Marshal, you truly are a grand-prize fool.”
Longarm limped around her and went over to the deputy. “Nelly, where’s the cemetery?”
“Yonder,” she said, pointing. “You can’t miss it at the edge of town.”
“Thanks,” he said, “for nothing.”
He tried to pick up Deputy Trout, but his head began to spin and he dropped to one knee.
“Jezus,“Nelly said, “if I get any blood on this new dress, I’ll … I’ll finish what them others didn’t finish with you, Marshal.”
Nelly grabbed Trout by the arms and dragged him over to the back of the medicine wagon. And then, to Longarm’s surprise, she took hold of the man’s pants and the back of his shirt and heaved his body into the wagon as effortlessly as if Trout had been a little sack of potatoes.
“You’re a damn strong woman,” Longarm said. “And a handsome one too.”
“Well,” she said, “you’re a mess.”
“I expect that is so,” he told her as he tried to climb back up into the wagon but couldn’t.
“For crying out loud, Marshal!” Nelly exclaimed. “You need doctoring!”
“Thanks for the advice.”
“You even got a shovel?”
“No.”
Nelly turned around. Harry!” A man appeared in front of a saloon. “Yeah, Nelly?”
“Get a couple of the boys and come help the marshal bury his fool deputy!”
“Yes, Miss Nelly.”
“Now,” she said, “why don’t you do something intelligent for a change and come let me take a look at those bullet wounds before you bleed to death and poor Harry and the boys have to dig two graves.”
Longarm was hanging onto the front wheel, dizzy as could be. He nodded and took a step toward Nelly, but that was when the lights went out and he fell into a deep well of darkness.
Chapter 9
Longarm awoke at mid-afternoon in a sea of pain. For several moments he gazed at the ceiling, and then he tried to sit up, but his ribs were on fire and he lay back with a grunt.
“What’s your hurry?” Nelly asked, coming over to his side. “Marshal, you need to learn the art of relaxation.”
He took a deep breath. “I haven’t got that luxury. You see, I’ve got a prisoner to recapture and some scores to settle with the men who ambushed me and Deputy Trout.”
“If that’s the way you’re thinking, then you also want to die,” Nelly said.
Longarm forced himself into a sitting position. “Maybe so, maybe not, but I damn sure can’t accomplish anything lying here arguing with you.”
“I cleaned and bandaged your wounds,” she said when Longarm’s feet hit the floor and it became clear that he could not be dissuaded from leaving. “But I expect that the next ones won’t need cleaning because you will be dead.”
Longarm climbed unsteadily to his feet. He had been undressed, except for his underclothes, and now, when he reached for his pants and rummaged about in his pocket, he was mildly surprised to discover that he still had cash.
“Ten dollars?”
“Keep it,” she said. “When you get killed, I’ll take your horses and wagon.”
