Longarm grimaced. “Because when you make a threat, the party that is being threatened has got to believe you’ll do it or else it ain’t no good. And Bodenheimer will know I will only go so far. He won’t be scared enough. He’s got to be more scared by what you are going to threaten him with than he will be about what he thinks that gang will do to him.”
“And how come that lets you out?”
“Because I’m a deputy U.S. marshal.”
“Well, hell. I’m supposed to be one too. At least a provisional one.”
“Yeah, but Bodenheimer don’t know it. Besides, I got a kind of reputation. He’ll take that into account.”
Davis chortled. “I’ll say you got a kind of reputation. I’d hate to tell you what kind I’ve heard you got.”
“Will you take my point?”
Davis waved a hand. “All right, all right. You want me to squeeze the sheriff. How we going to do it?”
Longarm thought a moment. “I figure to take that money and checks over to the Ownsbys’ auction barn. I’ll get Bodenheimer out of jail. I’ll have him in manacles. I don’t want you to be seen with us in town, so you join up about two or three miles up the road. I’ll just ride on, leaving him in your hands.”
“I take it you want him to tell everything he knows.”
“Everything. But especially how Dalton Diver and his daughters tie into the midst of this thing.”
“How far you want me to go?”
“Well, don’t kill him. Maybe back him up against a tree and see how close you can place a bullet next to his head. Now Austin, this is going to take some play-acting. I figure you ought to be pretty good at that.”
“Well, if you can play-act at being a marshal, I reckon I can handle my end.”
Longarm gave him a sour look. “Listen, I’m trusting you with an important job. Quit trying to be cute.”
“I’m just trying to find out how to go about this. Can I shoot off a finger or two? I hear that works pretty well. Shoot a couple of fingers off the grub hand of that fat boy and I reckon he’d try and turn inside out. Probably confess to anything.”
Longarm shook his head. “I wish you had a little better attitude toward this, Austin. I said threaten him, not half-kill him.”
Davis turned suddenly hard, cold eyes on Longarm. “I don’t know about you, pard, but if someone keeps threatening me with his mouth and ain’t doing nothing but tongue-whipping me, I’m going to get the idea pretty soon that I ain’t afraid at all. I think you better leave this part to me.”
Longarm stared at him, startled by the change in the man. He said slowly, “All right. Do what you have to. Just save me enough to occupy a federal cell in Leavenworth, Kansas.”
Davis’s face relaxed a little. “Maybe I won’t have to do nothing to him. But I got to know that I can if I have to. That’s the way I bluff a threat. There ain’t no bluff to it at all. That’s what convinces the other party.”
Longarm shook his head. “You are a curious duck. There for about a second or two you looked about half mean.”
Davis didn’t smile. “I am. I just don’t show that half unless I really have to.”
Longarm lit a cigar and looked at him and suddenly laughed. “Austin Davis, you are a fraud. I cannot believe I let you beat me playing poker. Them antics of yours ought not to fool a stepchild.”
Davis said, “You just keep thinking that way, Marshal. I’m anxious as you are to get this business over with and get you back to the poker table. I lied to you about bounty hunting. The real reason I’m here is that I heard you were in town and had some money for a change.”
Longarm stood up. “Let’s go. I don’t think I can support much more of this kind of talk from you. The floorboards are starting to creak from the load.”
“When are we going to do this?”
“Right now. I’ll get the money and checks from the desk clerk and try and learn you your part while I’m at it. Then I’m going to get the sheriff and meet you about two miles out on the Llano road. Try and keep your nerve. This Bodenheimer will be manacled, but he might still be more than you can handle.”
Davis gave him a dry look. “Talk about a load. I can’t wait to get shut of this job. The wages I’m drawing, I could starve to death just listening to you talk.”
Longarm thought that Bodenheimer sat a horse like a sack of flour. Or a sack of lard, if there was any such of a thing. They rode out of town on the Llano road, heading for the auction barn. Of course Bodenheimer didn’t know he wasn’t going to go all the way.
Longarm had taken him out of the jailhouse with his hands manacled in front of him. Bodenheimer, after an early protest and a repeated demand to be set free, had retreated into a sullen silence. Before heading out of town Longarm had ridden him on a circuit of the courthouse square.
As the townspeople had stopped to gawk and to stare, Longarm had said, “Look at that, Otis. They see you cuffed. They knew you were in jail, some of them, but now they see you in chains. What do you reckon they are thinking, Otis? Well, I’ll tell you. They are thinking that the barn dance is over. They are thinking that the chickens have come home to roost. You are the ring-leader of that thieving gang that has been using this county for a hideout and now that is all over. Those people are seeing the ring-leader in chains. That means all that fresh money coming in has done dried up. They won’t support you, Bodenheimer. Ain’t a one of them will back you.”
But Bodenheimer hadn’t responded. He didn’t speak until they were on the road out of town, and that was only to ask Where they were going.
Longarm had said, “I ought to be taking you to a hanging party, but I’m only taking you over to the sheriff in Llano. Of course he might hang you. But I got no say about that.”
