“Well, that’s better wages than sheriffing.”
“Yeah, but the hours are longer and the work is harder.”
Longarm said, “You ready to talk or do you need a couple more hours of sleep?”
Fisher Lee yawned. “Go on down to that cafe down the street. Let me freshen up and shave and then I’ll be on over there as soon as I gather myself up.”
Longarm said, “It’ll be lunch by then.”
“Hell, Longarm, a meal is a meal. It don’t make a damn what you call it.”
Longarm laughed and said, “My God, Fish, you’ve turned philosopher in your old age.”
“Just go on along and I’ll be over there shortly.”
Longarm jabbed out a finger. “For God’s sakes, change that underwear you’re wearing. It’s starting to turn green.”
Fisher said, “I don’t comment on your personal business. I’d take it mighty kindly if you’d do the same for me.”
“Hurry up.”
Longarm clumped down the stairs and went out the door of the saloon.
Fisher Lee ate a half-dozen fried eggs with grits and biscuits while Longarm had a steak and potatoes and some green beans. Longarm said, “Fish, no wonder your head ain’t latched on tight with the hours that you keep. You’re eating breakfast in the middle of the day. That would be enough to confuse a well man, and you’ve always just barely been across the border on that score.”
Fisher Lee didn’t look up. “If there was a body that came up to this table and looked at the both of us and said that one of us had a heavy load on his shoulders, I don’t reckon he’d choose me as the one that needed help.” He looked up. “And as you are coming to me for help, I’d be a mite slow on those personal criticisms that you have been aiming my way, since I drug my body out of bed for your benefit. Now, would you like to tell me what the situation is and where we’re at?”
Longarm said, “Let’s get done eating. I never could chew and talk at the same time. This damn situation is more complicated than it seems.”
“That woman’s involved, ain’t she?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“I don’t reckon I need to say anymore. You said it was complicated. That automatically means there’s a woman involved.”
“Just finish your breakfast.”
“You eat your lunch.”
They both ate in silence for another fifteen minutes. Longarm pushed his plate away, pulled out a small cigar, and lit it.
Chapter 4
Longarm said, “Well, it’s this way. Let me tell you what I know, what I think, what I’m planning, and see how much of it you go along with.” After that, he told Fish about his idea of having one brother come over while he crossed into Oklahoma to talk to the other one. He said, “I know we talked about it before and we both agreed that we didn’t know what the Gallaghers looked like. But I’m willing to trust the description that Lily Gail gave me about the scar on Rufus’s jaw.”
Fish gave him a skeptical look. “You feel real certain about that, do you?”
“I’m not saying that she is not capable of lying. I’m saying that she couldn’t have come up with it that fast and seen the intent behind my questions. I was pretty sly about it.”
Fish smiled slowly with his long face. “Yeah, there’s been many a man who thought he was sly until he measured his slyness against a woman’s slyness. A man’s going to come up short every time on that one.”
“Well, hell. It’s the best that I’ve got. I don’t have any other choice.”
“Yeah, you do. You can leave the whole damn situation alone.”
Longarm shook his head. “I almost wish I could, Fish, but something inside me won’t let me do it.”
Fisher Lee shrugged his shoulders and said, “It’s your neck. If you want to risk it, that’s your business. I’ll be glad to ride herd on the one that comes over. If it’s Rufus, so much the better. Of course, you still don’t know if they’re going to take your deal, do you?”
Longarm shook his head again. “No, and I won’t know until this afternoon. As soon as Lily Gail gets the word, she is to telegraph me and the business is supposed to happen tomorrow afternoon. I figured that we would have to leave out of here sometime tomorrow morning to get near to the border. We can take the mining company’s little train to Springer. That’ll knock forty miles off the ride.”
“There ain’t nothing going to happen unless you hear from Lily Gail?”
“Nothing that I’m going to go along with. If I don’t get a hedge on my bet, I’m not about to go along with this scheme, not even if it means a chance to capture the whole damn bunch of them.”
Fisher Lee lit a cigarette and shook out the match. “By and by, there’s one matter that you’ve not given all that much thought to. You’re going over there and you’re not just going to have truck with one of the Gallaghers. There’s liable to be a dozen or two of that wild bunch there. What if a few of them have enough of a grudge against you that they don’t give a damn what happens to the one that I’m holding? What if they decide to have a party with you, what then?”
Longarm took a sip of the beer that he had allowed to go flat while he ate lunch. “Well, I reckon that I’m a
