intentions, then they’re just trying to bait a honey trap and you’re the bait.”
“Now, Custis. That ain’t so. I’ve told you what be the truth as told me.”
“We’ll see. Now here’s what I want you to tell whoever it is that you meet when you get to Raton. You tell them that I will meet one of the Gallagher brothers just across the line on the Oklahoma side toward Quitman. I won’t come into Quitman, but I’ll meet one of the Gallagher brothers. The other is to come in and stay with a friend of mine named Fisher Lee. I think they will be able to understand that, if I don’t get back safe, the brother that will be with Fisher Lee might have some trouble finding his way home. Do you think you can understand that?”
She frowned, furrowing her brow. “No, I don’t really get it. Maybe you better tell it to me again.”
He took a sip of whiskey. “I think you understand it all right, Lily Gail, but I’ll tell you again in the morning just to be sure. What time does your train leave?”
“Ten.”
“Then we’ll get up at seven so we have plenty of time for you to practice and get your lines straight. Now, we’d better get some sleep. I’m nearly worn out.”
Lily Gail said, “You mean, you just want to sleep? Me and you in this nice big bed and you just want to sleep?”
He started undressing. “Lily Gail, I know it’s going to be a shock to your system, but that’s all I want to do tonight. You stay on your side of the bed.”
“I think I’m insulted.”
He nodded. “I know this may come as a surprise to you, Lily Gail. There are folks that use the bed for sleeping, and that’s just what we are going to do tonight. I’m nearly worn out from fooling around with you and worrying about this other business. The whole matter has taken me unaware, as my body was all prepared to do nothing but rest and have a good time until you came along and brought me this trouble.” He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Now, you just stay over there on your side of the bed and we’ll make it to morning. Then we’ll have some breakfast and get all of our plans straight so that you can understand them. I’ll make sure that you get your lines straight.”
The next morning at breakfast he said, “Now, your train will arrive in Raton just after noon and you are to meet someone there. You claim that you don’t know who, but that’s all right. Tell them to get word back to the Gallagher brothers that I’ll be at the New Mexico and Oklahoma border tomorrow at about four o’clock. I’ll ride on a direct line from Springer to Quitman. As flat as that country is, we ought to spot each other from ten miles off. I’ll have a man with me, Fisher Lee. He’s a tall string bean of a man, but he’s a good man. Now, we’re going to stop short of the Oklahoma border and I want Rufus to come across when I cross at the same time.”
She looked up from her coffee. “Rufus? You want Rufus?”
He nodded. “Yes, he’s the oldest. I think that it’s befitting for him to have the nice visit with Fisher Lee.” Of course, he didn’t tell her that Rufus was the one that she had identified with the scar.
She said, “So, you’ll be talking to Clem. What if they don’t care for that?”
“Then I reckon the deal is going to be off.”
She looked troubled. “They ain’t going to like it if I go back and tell them that you’re calling the terms. They might blame me for it.”
He reached over and patted her hand. “Lily Gail, I have confidence that you can take care of yourself.”
“Well, where would this Fisher fellow be taking Rufus, or whoever it is that comes?”
“It’s going to be Rufus. I know that Rufus has a scar on his jaw, so they aren’t going to try and fool me that way. Rufus and Fisher can come back a mile or two or they can find a shady tree somewhere along the way. The only point is that we want to make sure that I get on back without catching a cold or something else going wrong with me, don’t we.”
“Custis, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m telling you that all they want is to get straight with the law. They’ve got a lot of folks that they are going to put in your hands so that they can make it right.”
Longarm said, “Well, you just deliver the instructions that I gave you. We’ll be at that line tomorrow afternoon. If they want to play, tell them to be there also and we’ll make a swap. Rufus comes into New Mexico and I’ll go into Oklahoma.”
She furrowed her brow again. “They don’t much like to leave Oklahoma.”
Longarm nodded. “I know all about that, Lily Gail. I’m not going to ask them to come around law, and I’m not going to ask them to put themselves in some sort of jeopardy, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to stick my head into some sort of bear trap without somebody having a damn good hold on the bear. I’m not saying that I don’t trust the Gallaghers. It’s just that it’s a hell of a coincidence to have a bunch of other folks going around robbing and killing and burning down houses and using their name. Kind of makes me suspicious. Explain it to them that way. Right now, it seems like they have something that I may be able to use, but it also appears that I have something they really want and for all I know, what they really want is me and I want to make sure that ain’t so. Now, you go back to the room and get yourself ready to go. We need to start for the train depot real quick.”
Just before eleven o’clock, Longarm knocked on the door of Fisher Lee’s room above the adobe saloon. He’d seen Lily Gail on her train, and watched as it had pulled out for Raton, some seventy miles up the line. It took several knocks before a whiskered, tasseled-haired, and sleepy-looking Fisher Lee finally opened the door. He stood there in summer long underwear, yawning and looking like he’d only had about two hours’ sleep.
Longarm said, “My God, man. Do you sleep in those swaddling clothes?”
Fisher Lee blinked his eyes. “What?”
Longarm gestured and said, “That set of underwear you have on. Do you wear that as a regular thing?”
“Hell, Longarm. I don’t have much meat on my bones. I get cold.”
Longarm asked, “How were you last night? Cold?”
Fisher Lee tried to smooth his hair. “Oh, middling. I probably won a couple hundred, but it wasn’t worth the effort. I stayed up until near daybreak.”
