Simmons said, “Are you crazy? That stuff will blow you higher than the moon. I won’t say that it is more dangerous than a woman, but it’s damn sure more unpredictable. How much nitroglycerin are you talking about?”
Longarm scratched his head. “Well, I don’t know for certain. How much would, say, a pint blow up?”
Simmons looked at him thoughtfully. “A pint? Oh, roughly half of this town.”
“That much, huh?”
Simmons said, “Marshal, I don’t mean to interfere in your business, but nitro is not something that a body should fool around with if they’re not extremely experienced with its handling.”
Longarm nodded. “Mister Simmons, I appreciate what you’re telling me, but if I didn’t have a need for this, I wouldn’t even consider fooling around with it. I’ve had experience with dynamite and I know how dangerous that stuff can be.”
“Dynamite? Dynamite, Marshal Long, is the equivalent of water to whiskey. Sir, you are talking about a very unstable explosive. Do you know how long our nitro men survive—that is, when we can get them? Obviously, we’d rather use nitro because it blows a lot more ore than dynamite, but nitro men are hard to find. Do you have any idea how long they last?”
Longarm said, his voice low, “Mister Simmons, I’d take it as a personal favor if you’d not tell me. I believe I can get along without knowing that fact. The truth of the matter is, I’m in a hard spot and I have to have a bigger stick than the other fellow, and I can’t pack it in a holster and I can’t put it to my shoulder and pull the trigger because there are going to be several more of them than me and I need something that will be a terrific surprise.”
Simmons said, “It will be terrific, all right, and it will be a surprise, but just who is going to get the surprise, I wouldn’t care to guess.”
Longarm said, “I wonder if you could tell me about what amount I could use and conceal that would still pack a pretty good wallop. What about one of those little iodine bottles?”
“Well, that would be about two or three ounces. I’d say that unless you are facing a Mexican army, an amount of that size would be more than ample for your purposes. I have to tell you that I could not allow you to carry that on the train, not ours, at least, and I would recommend that you not carry it on anyone else’s train.”
“Then how am I going to get it to where I am going?”
“We’ll transport it for you. There are ways to transport it. One of the safest ways is to pack it in ice.”
Longarm said, “Well, that’s all well and good. But I have the matter of about twenty miles on horseback. Do you think that your men could pack it down in ice for me? Something that I could carry in my saddlebags?”
“Well, I’m certain we could do that, Marshal, but that ice is going to melt, depending on the temperature of the day.”
“How long do you reckon that it would stay cold like that?”
“I don’t know for certain. Again, it depends on the temperature of the day and whether you are going to go up into the mountains.”
Longarm said sadly, “I ain’t going to be going up into the mountains, Mister Simmons. In fact, I’m going to be heading for the hottest part of the state.”
Simmons said, “All I can tell you is that the longer you can keep it cold, the better off it will be.”
“Mister Simmons, do you reckon that ice could be put in some sort of waterproof container like an oilskin? I’d hate to be riding along and have water dripping out of my saddlebags. The folks that I’m going to be with might take an almighty interest in it.”
Simmons nodded. “I don’t see where that would be a problem. I do wish, Marshal, you could tell me what you intend to be using this nitro for, but I know that’s probably government business and none of mine.”
“I’m afraid that’s the case, sir, even as obliging as you’ve been.”
Simmons said, “All I can say is that I hope this works out for you. Your name is not unknown to me or to a number of good people in this area, and it’s a name that means honesty and integrity and doing the job. I can’t say that for the local law we have around here. So it is a worry to me to have one of our finest peace officers contemplating an effort that involves something as unstable as nitroglycerin.”
Longarm smiled thinly. “Well, you should have known some of the ladies I have had during the course of my life, if you want to talk about being unstable. But I would just as soon that you didn’t make that last statement of yours sound like a eulogy.”
Simmons laughed. “Didn’t mean it to be so, Marshal. I’m certain that you know what you’re doing.”
Longarm stood up. “So I can count on that nitro being given to me as I depart the train in Springer?”
“That’s correct.”
Longarm reached for his wallet. “Let me give you a government voucher for the nitro and for the use of your train, Mister Simmons.”
The mining engineer waved off his offer. “That won’t be necessary, Marshal Long. The Silverado Mining Company is more than willing to assist duly constituted peace officers in the performance of their duty. I could only wish that your business might include a gang that has been giving us considerable trouble of late. Have you ever heard of the Gallaghers?”
Longarm was in the middle of putting on his hat, and he stayed his arm in midair. “The who?”
“The Gallaghers. Several brothers and a gang of their cohorts.”
Longarm looked at the engineer curiously. “What would you be having to do with the Gallaghers? They’re mostly in Oklahoma, so far as I know, and they’ve never done much in the New Mexico Territory.”
Simmons said, “Well, actually, they are only minutely into New Mexico Territory. That line you’re going to be running on into Springer, we’re trying to extend it east past Clayton and join it up to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad line so that we can ship our silver bullion north to government mints. We’ve been having a problem running
