Fisher had said, “There ain’t no such day and there ain’t never going to be such a day. You sit there long enough and I’ll own everything you have including all the lies you’ve told about women.”
It wasn’t long before Longarm could hear grunts and scrambling noises from behind him. He figured it was Fisher losing more weight and having trouble with his slick-soled boots on the hard, rocky, angled sides of the butte. Then Fisher came into view, struggling along with the big bucket in his hand.
Longarm asked, “What do you have there? Some hot soup?”
Fisher was still out of breath, and it took him a moment before he could reply. “No, I’ve got some water for the only really necessary element of this organization, old Pedro.”
Longarm smiled. “Now, that’s damn thoughtful of you, Fisher. I’m really sorry that I’ve said the things that I’ve said about you around town.”
Fisher said, “Go to hell.” He took the water over to the grateful burro, who immediately plunged half his head into the bucket.
Longarm said, “Naturally, you didn’t bring him any grain.”
“Why …” Fisher stopped. “They didn’t happen to have any grain, Mister Deputy Marshal Custis Long. They were not even aware of our presence. I did improvise on the spot, and I did try to get the horses fed. But I have them over in a better place than that little bit of woods and with some halfway decent grass. They’re cinched up, but I took the bits out of their mouths so that they could graze. It shouldn’t take us but a second or two to rebridle them.”
“Well, I reckon that’s all right. You done good, Fish, for a man of your capabilities.”
Fisher kneeled down beside him and looked to his carbine. He said, “Any sign of anything?”
“No, nothing, just a lot of view. How did that train crew take to you coming up on them?”
Fish smiled. “Well, they were a mite apprehensive at first. I told them that we were just out here scouting the country for the surveyor.”
“That was quick thinking. What did they say?”
“They warned me about the bandits.”
“nat was thoughtful of them.”
“I didn’t tell them there was already one up there on that butte, wearing a badge but a bandit just the same. I swear, Longarm, you cheated sometime in that card game. You had to have. There ain’t no way you can beat me straight up.”
“If anybody cheated, it was you. By the way, where is the ice that you brought from the train? That nitro is starting to sweat.”
Fish jumped to his feet. “Oh, hell, I forgot it. It’s down by the horses. I’m going after it now.”
Longarm yelled after him, “Bring our canteens. It’s getting warm up here and I don’t know how long we are going to have to wait.”
Fisher’s voice came from around the curve on the trail. Longarm could hear him scrambling. Fish said, “Anything else?”
Longarm said, “Yeah, you might have remembered most of the stuff, but you didn’t come back with nothing but a bucket of water for Pedro.”
Longarm could hear the muffled sound of cursing. He laughed softly to himself.
The morning dragged on. They had very carefully added ice to the nitro, or rather, Longarm had added the ice. After one look, Fisher had retreated around to the other side of the butte, vowing that he didn’t see any point in getting himself blown to pieces by a damn fool fooling around with something that he didn’t know nothing about.
After that, they’d had a breakfast of cheese and saltines and canned peaches. It wasn’t much, but as Fish had said, it was filling, especially the sardines.
They kept their eyes to the east. It got to be ten o’clock and then eleven. By then, the road crew had laid down fifty feet of cross-ties and were starting to bring up the rails. It was interesting to watch them. Four men with a kind of a long instrument would each get ahold of a rail, lift it off the flatcar, pick it up again, and walk it up to its place atop the cross-ties. After that, two men, working in unison, would drive home the spikes that held it in place. The sledgehammer blows filled the valley with the constant sound of steel on steel.
Longarm said, “If they can’t hear that, even in Quitman, then they’re deaf. I have an idea that they keep a very close eye on this particular section of track.”
Fisher said, “What about us? Maybe they’ve seen us and been spooked.”
“We haven’t showed ourselves since about eight o’clock, and they wouldn’t be looking for us anyhow. They think they’re the cock of the walk around here. They’ll come unless they plan to let Mister Simmons get his railroad built, which I seriously doubt since they don’t quite have as much money in their headquarters in Springer as they would like.”
Fisher said testily, “Well, dammit, I wish they would come. I’m getting tired of this.”
Longarm said, “Get out the cards. You still have about fifty dollars of my money.”
Fisher reached in his pocket. “Get over here close. We’ll play under the lee of these rocks where there is at least a little shade. I can tell you this one thing. Once I win all your money, I ain’t loaning you no more, not even on that damn plug horse of yours.”
It was just after noon when Fisher raised his head. He said, “I think I hear something.”
Longarm said, “Probably pounding in your ears because you are getting your ass whipped here.” Longarm had won all of his money back and about fifty dollars of Fisher’s.
