exactly we are going to do this.”
Fisher said, “Sounds to me like somebody has to trust somebody, and I don’t think they’re the trusting kind. I damn sure don’t feel like being trusting to folks such as them.”
Longarm said, “Let’s just see how it goes. At least they’re here.”
“Yeah, if it’s them.”
As they rode forward, the other pair of men started in their direction. They came fifty yards farther as Longarm and Fisher slowly advanced. With the distance down to about fifty or seventy-five yards, both sides pulled up. Longarm could not quite make out the features of either man, but he could see the white scar along the jaw of the man to his left. He stood up in his stirrups and yelled, “Gallagher? You be the Gallaghers?”
The one on the right said, “Yeah, are you Marshal Custis Long, the one they call Longarm?”
“That’s correct. I hear you want to talk to me. I hear you have some wrongdoers that you want to deliver into my custody. Is that correct?”
The one doing the talking said, “Well, that’s right as far as that goes, but that don’t cover the whole business of the matter. I’m willing to turn these men over to you if you’ll give us a fair ear as to how come we’re being hounded and run down and persecuted like we’ve been when me and my brother ain’t never done nothing wrong.”
Longarm asked, “Who am I talking to?”
“Hell, you’re talking to Clem Gallagher. Who did you think that you were talking to?”
“Who’s the other man?”
“That’s my brother, Rufus. Hell, don’t you recognize him? I thought you had seen both of us. God knows, you’ve deviled us long enough. I thought you’d know us both by sight.”
Longarm said, “No, just from a distance and mostly from the back.”
“Yeah, I reckon that my shoulder blades twitched a little bit. Must have been just out of range.”
“The last man I shot in the back just happened to turn at the wrong moment.”
Clem Gallagher said, “I’ll make damn sure that I don’t make that mistake.”
Longarm said, “All right. How do you want to do it? I’m not coming over there until you give me somebody over here. Is Rufus willing to come over here? This is Fisher Lee. He’s a deputy U.S. Marshal out of the Santa Fe office.”
Clem Gallagher said, “I thought them were the terms, although I didn’t know you all had an office in Santa Fe.”
“It was my understanding that you didn’t get around the New Mexico territory very much, you didn’t care for it, and you didn’t have that many kinfolk there.”
“I’m willing to go through with the agreement that we made through Lily Gail.”
Longarm said, “All right. Send Rufus over. As soon as he crosses over, I’ll cross over to you. By the way, what is that shack over there?”
Clem Gallagher turned in his saddle and looked back in the direction of the old building. He said, “Oh, just some old sodbuster that didn’t make it. He tried to make a living growing rocks and cactus. I guess he thought that corn would grow in sand. It’s just a big old falling-down house.”
Longarm said, “Where are these men that you plan to deliver to me?”
Clem said, “They are right handy. If we reach an agreement, I can promise you that no less than fourteen men will be turned over to you, maybe more.”
“How come your brother never says anything?”
“He ain’t the talking kind.”
“Start him forward and I’ll start at the same time.”
Longarm watched the other man as, for a moment, he talked to Clem Gallagher. The scar was plain as he worked his mouth.
Clem Gallagher yelled, “Rufus wants to make it damn clear that he’s not going to surrender his weapon.”
“I don’t expect him to. Neither will I surrender mine. However, Clem, if anybody else joins us, then you’re going to surrender yours.”
Clem said, “It’s just me and you, Marshal. Dammit, I told you that all I want to do is talk. How come you can’t believe an honest man?”
“I do believe honest men. Start your brother.”
Clem Gallagher nodded at the man beside him, and suddenly the man with the silver scar on his jaw started his horse toward Fisher. Longarm touched the spurs to the flanks of his dun and matched Rufus, if in fact that was who he was, stride for stride as they neared the invisible boundary between them.
Off to his left, Fisher said, “Good luck, Longarm. I hope you don’t need any.”
Without taking his eyes off either man, Longarm said, “Unlike some card players I know, I don’t depend on luck, Fisher. You’d better mind yourself.”
Fisher said, “I believe I can hold up my end.”
“Well, we ought to get this over with pretty quick.”
Then, off to his left, the man called Rufus passed across the invisible line at the same time Longarm did. Longarm touched his horse again lightly with his spurs so that he increased to a faster walk. Then, suddenly remembering he was supposed to be riding a crippled animal, he quickly slowed him again.
