sharing with you because ain’t none of it coming back.”
Longarm said, “Look, Mister Diver, I’m going to tell you straight up front what I’m after. And there won’t be no use you lying about the affair because I’ve already got the straight of it. Was you and the banker and the mayor and the sheriff put this deal together. I want some of y’all—though not real bad. Mainly who I want is the hot hands that were pulling the triggers. I don’t get them, then there’s going to be an awful lot of old men doing some real hard time in prison. Not to mention your daughters.”
Diver sat staring at Longarm while he sipped at his glass of whiskey. Then Diver said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I ain’t got no son and I ain’t in cahoots with the banker or the mayor or anybody else about robbing and thieving. I run a little cattle and goat operation and that’s the extent of it.”
Longarm stood up. “All right. Have it your own way. But it is a long trip to visit relatives in prison in Kansas.”
Austin Davis put out a hand to stay him. “Marshal Long, why not be patient with Mister Diver. I think he is at heart a good man. It may be we come at him a little sudden and he’s still trying to take it all in.”
Ignoring Diver, Longarm said to Austin Davis, “What’s to take in? It’s a straightforward choice. I’m offering to give him four daughters for one son. Hell, a child in school can understand that. Four for one. You know of a better swap? I’ll even throw in about half of what I was going to do to the son in the bargain. Hell, that’s four and a half to one. You ain’t going to pick up a better day than that, not even on Trades Days with the village idiot.”
Austin Davis said to Dalton Diver, “What about it, Mister Diver? It seems to me that the marshal has gone a long way out of his direction to be fair about this. I understand a son is worth more than one daughter. But four of them? And as pretty as they are? Hell, I know what kind of business you been doing on the bride price. And now you can sell all four of them again because they are all widows. And you can thank the marshal for Gus Home. Actually, his name is Gus White, but you probably knew that. Anyway, it was the marshal made a widder woman out of Hannah and her still a fresh flower.”
Dalton Diver opened his mouth, but Longarm spoke before he could get out a word. He said, “Now, Mister Diver, you go ahead and be as stubborn as you want to about this matter. But I do have your daughters and they will go to trial for consorting with known criminals. They-“
Diver half rose out of his chair. His face was anguished. He said, “They never consorted with them. They was married to ‘em, but dammit, they never done no consortin’ with them.”
Longarm said, “That’s your story. But the jury that tries them is going to hear a different one. I don’t know how much money you got, but you ain’t going to have nowhere near as much after you get through paying their legal fees to try and keep them out of prison.”
Austin Davis suddenly stood up. He said in a disgusted voice, “I don’t know why you are fooling with him, Marshal. Hell, we got the sheriff. He’ll testify against the banker and the mayor. And they damn sure will testify against Mister Diver here. We know damn near everything. What do we want to keep fooling with him for?”
Longarm said, “I’ll just take the Bible.”
Dalton Diver stood up to his full height. His mouth worked. He said, “Now wait a minute, wait a damn minute.”
Longarm stabbed a finger at him. “What for? We know the whole plan was yours. Marshal Smith here has seen Vince Diver in Rock Springs and around. He knows his reputation.”
Austin Davis said, “And Dan Hicks.”
Longarm said, “And Jim Squires.” He shook his head. “Who in hell you trying to fool, old man? We know the whole thing was your idea. Hell, we even know about the paint horse.”
Dalton Diver seemed to collapse. He sat down heavily in his chair and took up his drink, gulping at it. When he lowered it he said dully, “All right. What is it you want? How will you trade?”
“For the truth. I want to know how all this got started.”
Dalton Diver looked resigned. He said, “Then I reckon you better sit down and pour yourself another drink. It takes a little telling.”
Chapter 10
Dalton Diver scratched his ear and said, “You’ll have to kind of forgive me, gentlemen, if I get this kind of bass-ackwards and turned around in places. It started better’n two years ago, and like Topsy, it just kind of growed. But you are right about one thing—it had to do with the bride price I was getting on my daughters. But that was just one part. The main part, the robbing part, that started a little bit later, and it wasn’t my idea and it wasn’t Vince’s. It was the banker’s, the president of the Mason State Bank, Ernest Crouch. Was him got the biggest part of it started. Though how you figured out about that pinto horse beats me. But then you are federal lawmen, and I reckon they hire fellows like you ‘cause you can figure such things out.”
Longarm and Austin Davis glanced at each other, both shrugging with their eyes. They both wished Diver would hurry up and tell them what they’d guessed about the paint horse. Longarm had only made reference to it with the idea that it was the horse Vince Diver rode, but Diver had made it sound more complicated than that.
Austin Davis prompted Diver. “Now what about your daughters?”
Dalton Diver rubbed his chin. “Well, I had married off my two oldest daughters and got a pretty good price for ‘em. All my daughters is swell-looking girls. ‘Course I didn’t get near what I could have got if we’d still been in the Shaker community. But I done about as well as I could around here. Anyway, I was grousing to Vince about it and he said he might think of something. I was just about to marry Sarah, that was the next one, to this Lester Gaskamp feller. Now I knew Vince was doing a little outlaw business, and though I was agin it, I knowed he had to make his way the best he could. Well, he got this Gaskamp feller in with him, and soon as Sarah and him was married, Vince carried him off and got him kilt. So there she was, still an unspoilt flower, and my wife—she was still alive then—said I ought to marry her off again. So I did. Vince found the feller and he had the price and the mayor done the ceremony and she was a widow again.”
Longarm stared at him and said, “Now that is one I hadn’t heard about. Sarah has been married twice?”
Dalton Diver nodded. “Yeah, but it didn’t amount to much. The mayor kind of done it on the run, so to speak, as Vince was taking his bunch over to Brady to rob a cattle buyer they knew had a big chunk of money on him. I don’t know how Vince got him kilt, but he managed, and that is the way it kind of started.”
Longarm frowned. “I think I need a few more details than that.”
