She said, “Well, I can take the train in the morning then and spend the night. That’s what I was told.”
He gave her a slow smile. “Lily Gail, I don’t know if you are aware of it or not, but I can arrest you right here on the spot. You’re in the employ of wanted felons, which makes you an accessory to everything from cattle theft to murder. I could throw you in prison for ten years.”
She gave him a round-mouth look. “Oh, now you wouldn’t do that, now would you, Custis?”
He chuckled. “Oh, well, not before in the morning, anyway.”
Longarm got up and walked over and refilled his glass. “Did the Gallaghers say how many of these two-bit small-fry they were going to surrender?”
“Well, not in round numbers, but I think it’s somewhere around a dozen.”
Longarm laughed and shook his head. “Well, that must have been some bargain. I guess the Gallaghers gave them a choice: either be slow-roasted over a fire or pull a little prison time. I guess it wasn’t too hard a decision to come to.”
Lily Gail said anxiously, “Oh, no, that’s not the way of it at all, Custis. The Gallaghers, they captured these men and they have them ready to turn over to you.”
Longarm said, “Lily Gail, you’re good at one thing, why don’t you just stick to that.”
She tossed her head. “That’s an awful mean thing to say, Custis. Do you realize the last time we were together you got my hair all muddy in that old barn.”
He stared at her in amazement. What she was talking about was the struggle to get the keys to unlock himself from the chains that had bound him to the center post of the barn where he was being held. His struggle had been made more desperate because he knew the Gallaghers were only a few hours away and that his life was hanging in the balance. Now she was talking about him getting her hair muddy. Well, that was Lily Gail for you, he thought.
Longarm said in a sincere-sounding voice, “Lily Gail, you know, I’ve lain awake nights thinking about what I did to your hair. I can’t tell you the amount of sleep that I’ve lost over that.”
For a second, she almost smiled. Then she wrinkled her brow in thought before slapping the mattress with the flat of her hand. She said, “Oh, you’re just saying that. You’re not sorry at all.”
Longarm shook his head slowly. “Ain’t nothing gets by you, is there, Lily Gail. You’re too hard a nut to crack for me, I’ll tell you.” Then his tone of voice changed. He said briskly, “You had better get up and get dressed. We need to eat some supper here before too long. Obviously, you won’t be going back to Raton tonight, since I can’t make up my mind what I want to do by the time the evening train leaves.”
She said, “You just think you’re going to have your lustful way with me, don’t you, Mister Deputy Marshal Custis Long? I know how you think and that’s the reason you’re going to make me stay over, now isn’t it?”
He grinned at her. “I’ll make you a deal, Lily Gail. I’ll leave you alone if you’ll leave me alone. Now, how’s that?”
“Ha! You don’t mean that!”
“Try me.”
“You sound like you don’t like me anymore.”
“Like you? Lily Gail, you’re about as likable as rotgut whiskey. Drink that, and you don’t realize the damage you’re doing to yourself until it’s too late.”
“I guess that’s not supposed to be a compliment, is it?”
“Lily Gail, just study on it. Now, get up and get dressed. I’ve got to do some hard thinking tonight and I’ve got to go and find a man.”
“And what am I supposed to be doing while you’re gadding about the town?”
“Well, if you want me to do what you’ve been sent to get me to do, then you’ll stay right here in this room. I’d be happy if you walked on out and caught the train and I never saw you again. I’m willing to maybe go along with this idea that the Gallaghers have thought up, but I’m not in love with it. You make up your mind what you’re going to do.”
“Well, all right, if you’re going to be like that about it, but you won’t be out too late, will you?”
Longarm said, “We’ll see.”
Chapter 3
Longarm and Fisher Lee sat at a table in a corner of a low-ceilinged smoky saloon not far from Longarm’s hotel. The saloon could have been one of fifty in the town, but for some reason it was a gathering place for real high- money poker players. Fisher Lee was there almost every night. Now, they sat talking over a couple of drinks. Longarm was drinking good Spanish brandy, but Fisher, because he would be playing most of the night, was contenting himself with a beer.
Fisher Lee was a man of about forty. He was tall and lean and seemed slow of movement and slow of reaction. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Longarm considered him as fine a man with a gun as he’d ever served with. Fisher’s even temper and ready laugh had led more than one fool into making a mistake about him, either in a card game or a gunfight.
Longarm said, “So, what do you think, Fish? How does it look to you?” He had just finished telling his friend the details of the proposition Lily Gail had brought him. Fisher put back his head and laughed good-humoredly. “What do I think, Longarm? I believe it’s a trap or else somebody has gotten word to them that you’ve lost your mind.”
Longarm nodded. “That’s what’s got me so puzzled about the whole damn thing. Do they really think I’m such a damn fool that I would ride out in the bald-ass prairie and be a target for those damn Gallaghers? I’ve killed one, but I’d like another, maybe two more.”
Fisher Lee, who knew as much about the Gallaghers as anyone, although his law work had never brought him into contact with them, nodded. “Yeah, I heard about you blowing one of them out of the county with a stick of
