“So was her sister.”
Austin Davis reached in his pocket and came out with a cigarillo and a match. He lit the black little cigar and got it drawing. “We going to see ol’ Dalton Diver?” he asked.
Longarm nodded toward the cells. “I’d feel better if we waited and made sure we had all our chicks in the coop before we left matters to the sheriff and his boys.”
Davis said, “Am I right in thinking why you want the daughters penned up before we see the daddy?”
Longarm nodded. “I would reckon you are. Lord, I am hungry. Are you?”
“We ain’t ate since breakfast. But maybe Dalton Diver will give us some supper.”
Longarm looked grim. “I would doubt it. This could be a little rough, Austin. He’s got three hired hands out there.”
Davis was busy looking through the drawers of the sheriff’s desk.
“Aaah, I figured he’d have a little liquid courage in here.” He came out holding a bottle of whiskey. He uncorked it and gave it a smell.
“Ain’t too bad. Of course it ain’t that fancy whiskey of yours.” He put the bottle to his lips and took a short drink. He coughed a little and held the bottle out to Longarm. “Ain’t the smoothest I ever drank. You want me to hold a gun on you?”
Longarm took the bottle. “Naw, I reckon I can get a swig down on my own.” He took two quick swallows out of the bottle and then lowered it. He breathed out, “Aaaaah! For heaven’s sake, don’t strike an open flame. Whole place will go up.”
Austin Davis suddenly looked toward the door. “Sounds like our party has arrived.”
“It’s going to be a party, all right. I reckon we better get ready to help them. Though I ain’t sure if the six of us can manage it.”
Davis said, “I just wish I had me some little corks to shove in my ears. It is going to be a powerful racket when we shove two more in there.”
Chapter 9
They rode out of town through the gathering twilight. Longarm calculated it would take them three quarters of an hour to a full hour to reach Dalton Diver’s place. He said, “I doubt we’ll get there before seven.”
Austin Davis said, “After supper. Hell, my stomach thinks my throat has been cut. Maybe they’ll have some left over.”
Longarm glanced sideways at him. “I doubt you can expect Mister Diver to extend us much hospitality when he finds out what we are there for.”
“You reckon he’ll crumble?”
Longarm made a shrug. “I don’t know. That’s up to him. With the evidence I got I can send a number of people to jail. It’s all up to Diver what their names are gonna be.”
“How many girls left at home?”
“What I understand from Hannah, there are four. I think the oldest is around seventeen, maybe eighteen. The youngest is maybe twelve.”
“Then there’s four married, or kind of married, around here.”
“And the other two have married and moved off. I don’t reckon they count. Maybe Rachel, the one living at Rock Springs.”
Davis said, “That Shaker business is cute as hell, ain’t it? Who would have ever thought of such a thing. I never heard of no Shakers, had you?”
The road narrowed and then forked. Longarm bore them to the left. They were in a grove of mesquite and post oak and it made it seem darker.
Longarm said, “Watch out for that limb on your right. No, I had never heard of no Shakers, though I don’t doubt that there are such. But if using that name was Dalton’s idea of a little joke, he is going to have a hell of a hard time explaining his way out of it.”
“I guess they got kind of arrogant.”
Longarm glanced over at his riding mate. “Hell, why shouldn’t they? They were like the local sawmill or a silver mine. They were a business, bringing money into the town and the county. Never mind it was other people’s money. Hell, they were popular around here. Arrogant? Hell, they were proud. Everybody in this county thanks them. By rights I ought to put every citizen over the age of twelve in jail. That would interfere with their daydream and maybe teach them the difference between right and wrong. I don’t ever remember getting so down on a place in all my life.”
“So I take it you are agin this scheme?”
Longarm gave him a sour look, but he doubted Davis could see it in the dim light. “We’re a long ways from wrapping up this particular matter. I’ll be glad to joke with you later. Right now I’m tired and hungry and just a little pissed off.”
It was close to an hour later when they spotted lights through the sparse trees. Within another quarter of a mile they could see a big, two-story whitewashed house standing atop a broad little hillock. Behind were several barns and sheds and a few corrals. As they neared, Longarm could see that the central part of the house had once been a simple two-story frame, and that with years and children, wings and such had been added on. It was a common enough practice in the South and the Southwest. They rode directly up to the front steps that led to the big porch running across the front of the house. From the back Longarm could hear a pack of dogs suddenly break into voice. He figured they were coon or fox dogs, and therefore penned up and not likely to come flying around the house to make their horses jump by nipping at their heels. Austin Davis hello’d the house as was the custom. They could see lights on in several rooms, but you didn’t dismount in backcountry and go up to the door. It was a quick way to get a belly full of buckshot. You stayed mounted and called out to the house until you were invited to step
