“That wouldn’t work,” Longarm snorted. “In the first place, the Paiutes are all well under six feet and I’m six- four. I’d stick out like a sore thumb.”
“All right, then be a half-breed. Or better yet, a half-breed that is on the run from the law.”
Longarm had been sitting astraddle a wooden chair with his arms draped over the back. Now, he stood up and began to pace. “Maybe it would work,” he said. “I could trade in this suit for some hard-looking clothes and boots. George Two Ponies would lend me a horse and saddle, and we’ve ridden together enough so that I know what mustanging is all about.”
“You’d need to trail at least a half-dozen trade ponies into Helldorado. Killion would laugh at ‘em, but they’d get you into his town, and then you could stay for a couple of days and try to gain some evidence.”
“By damn,” Longarm said, “I think you’ve really hit on something. I’m surprised that I didn’t think of anything this good myself.”
“Well,” Gus said modestly, “I’ve had quite a while to ponder on this and I told myself that, if I wasn’t so damned well known in these parts, it’s the disguise that I’d use. Which brings me to another point.”
“And that is?”
“Are you sure that neither Matthew Killion nor any of his gang has seen you before?”
“I’m not sure of anything,” Longarm admitted.
“Shave that mustache, get some old clothes, smear dirt on your face and look dark like a half-breed, and do a lot of praying.”
“That’s your advice?”
“It is.”
“I’ll take it, except for the mustache.”
“Then use some charcoal or smoked Indian roots to make it black rather than brown,” Bell advised. “And do the same for your hair. If you’re supposed to be half Mexican or white and half Indian, you’d need to have black hair, black brows, and a black mustache.”
“I guess that’s true,” Longarm reluctantly admitted.
“Damn right it is.”
Longarm stood up and extended his hand. “I wish that you weren’t tethered to Reno and could come with me.”
“I don’t,” Bell said with a smile. “I enjoy living too much to do that.”
“Thanks for the encouragement.”
“Is there anyone that you want me to send your pension to after they string you up by the thumbs and slowly carve you into strips and leave you to hang in the sun until you’re the color of old beef jerky?”
“No,” Longarm said, not a bit amused, “but there are a couple of ladies who just arrived in your town that I wish you’d look out after.”
“Are they young an pretty?”
“Would it matter?”
Bell shook his head. “Of course not. But it would help to make the job more pleasant.”
“One is named Irma and she’s on her way to snagging Sam Allen for a husband.”
“Then I hope she’s got a sense of humor.”
“What,” Longarm asked, “does that mean?”
“It means that Sam Allen doesn’t have any sense of humor at all. He takes himself far too seriously.”
“So I gathered,” Longarm said. “And yes, Irma has a great sense of humor.”
“Good-looking, huh?”
“Very. But she’s got a past that could haunt her, Gus. And if it does, I want you to help her out.”
“You mean …”
“I mean if you see she’s not smiling, then find out why and solve the problem.”
“I follow your drift,” Gus said. “You know I don’t hold a person’s past against them. I’ll help your lady friend. What about the other woman? I take it that she’s also got some big problem that I need to help her with?”
“Her name is Lady Caroline.”
Bell’s eyebrows raised. “‘Lady’ Caroline? You mean she’s some kind of royalty?”
“Some kind of aristocracy. She’s traveling with her aunt, who is also aristocracy but has the face of a sundried prune and the disposition of a skunk.”
“So what are they doing here?”
Longarm told the marshal about how Caroline had defied her family to come in search of adventure and how her aunt had come along as the young woman’s chaperone. He ended by saying, “Caroline thinks that she might like to work.”
“You mean like real work?”
“Not hard work,” Longarm corrected. “But she’d do well in a millinery, dress shop, or something of that nature.
