drought, it’s not too safe to loiter about. We were halfway here when that damned line squall blew out of the west last night. I wanted to go back and see if we couldn’t at least parlay that into a few square meals. But I guess Roxanne was right. You quit when you’re ahead when your hydrogen acid runs out and you owe half the merchants in the county. She said when she went off with the little money we had left that she’d bring back at least some coffee and staples. I was half asleep when I agreed to it. Now I can see what she meant by quitting while she was ahead.”
Longarm said soothingly, “Ain’t hardly anything open in town at this hour. I didn’t think you were kin to the real Dan’l Ruggles, but you really are sisters, ain’t you?”
Rowena laughed wryly and replied, “Not exactly. We met as cell mates less than a year ago. I was doing six months for shoplifting. She’d served half her jolt for pulling the old Gypsy switch on the wrong alderman’s wife. But you’ve had time to find out all about us, being as professional in your own way, right?”
Longarm didn’t want her to think he wasn’t omnipotent. So he had no call to ask how two adventurous young gals had come by all this rainmaking flim-flammery. He said, “I told your sister—I mean Miss Roxanne—your confidence game wasn’t covered by federal statute. I want you to keep that in mind as I ask you a more serious question. I ain’t after you on any charge, and such money as you may or may not have betwixt you is none of my beeswax. Do we understand one another so far?”
The disconsolate gal in the thin kimono shrugged her sort of pretty shoulders and asked, “What ‘s to understand about money we don’t have? I told you we were run off as nearly flat-broke failures. We were so sure it just had to rain after weeks and weeks without any.”
He said, “Welcome to the High Plains in summertime. I know about the escrow fund set up for you ladies by the Grange at Cedar Bend. That was the money you never got because it never rained before you ran out of gas for your balloons. Do you have any of that dynamite left, by the way?”
She said, “Only a few sticks. Roxanne thought she might be able to trade them and the mules for food in town. Maybe she did. There was a morning train through here just before dawn. Have you ever listened to a railroad whistle in the wee small hours, wondering who was on it, going where?”
Longarm said, “I heard that same whistle a mile or so out on the prairie, and wondered much the same, only not about Miss Roxanne. To get back to my reasons for pestering you like this, I was told an old boy from Sappa Crossing had been commissioned to pay the two of you good money if it didn’t rain. His name was Horst Heger. Middle-aged Dutchman, albeit not one of them Mennonites. Your turn.”
She shrugged and said, “Do I look like anyone’s just handed me one whole silver dollar? Some of those Dutch homesteaders to the south did ride over to cuss at us when we were sending up our fool balloon. Lord knows why. We thought all farmers wanted rain. But the Cedar Bend boys wouldn’t let them near us. I don’t recall anyone called Horse, for land’s sake. So where’s all this money he was supposed to give us?”
Longarm said, “I’m still working on that. I just sent a mess of wires, hoping for details nobody around here seems able, or willing, to help me out with. I figure I might have a better grasp on some of ‘em before this day is done. Meanwhile, I’ve had a long hard night and a man gets some rest when he gets the chance. So I thank you for clearing at least one of those details up, and I’ll get out of your way now, Miss Rowena.”
She told him he wasn’t in her way as she faced some worries of her own. But he ticked his hat brim again and strode off anyway as, behind him, the young gal in the kimono seemed to be sobbing her lonely heart, or empty stomach, out.
Longarm knew better. It wasn’t as if they paid him all that well, and the young sass doubtless deserved a hard time. But once he was back on McCook’s main street, he sauntered into a grocery he found open and had them fill a paper sack with simple but hearty canned goods and a fair grade of coffee. Nobody but a regular Don Quixote would spring for genuine Arbuckle Brand he’d never get to drink.
When he asked if there were any other groceries open that early, he was told there were none and that he was their first customer of the day. So it seemed it took a Ruggles sister to know a Ruggles sister and there old Roxanne went, with all their money and some dynamite as well! You could hardly blame little Rowena for bawling a mite.
As he strode back along the railroad tracks with his gun hand free, as was his custom, two burly gents in railroad overalls cut him off, one packing a baseball bat while the other backed his play with a sawed-off Greener 12-gauge. So Longarm called out, “Howdy. I ain’t looking for a free train ride. I’m just out to deliver some grub to a lady, and I’m sorry my route takes me across this stretch of your right-of-way.”
The one in the lead with the baseball bat smiled wolfishly and said, “We’ll see how sorry we may have to make you, pilgrim. You say that sack’s for that whore camped down the line with them circus wagons?”
Longarm stopped just out of easy batting range and replied, “She ain’t a whore. She’s a flimflam, and only one of them wagons is a circus wagon. The other one’s a gas generator, only right now it’s empty and easier to move. I would be the law, federal, and both wagons are on federal open range right now, if it’s all the same to you.”
The yard bull growled, “Anyone can say they’re anything. Where’s your badge if you ain’t nothing but a saddle tramp in duds no fancier than our’n?”
Longarm wasn’t about to have both hands full at the same time in such uncertain times. So he hunkered to set the groceries on the path before he rose back to his considerable full height with his billfold open in his left hand to flash badge and identification.
The yard bull peered hard, blinked, and said, “Great day in the morning if you ain’t that one they call Longarm! I surely hope you understand we were only doing our job, Deputy Long!”
Longarm put the billfold away and hunkered down for the groceries again as he said, “Doing 1 right too. I respect any man who takes his job serious, and we’ve agreed this path runs across railroad property.”
He rose again and, as they made way for him, added, “Don’t spread it about, but the ladies camped down the line may be government witnesses at a federal trial in the near future. So I’d be obliged if nobody pestered ‘em before they’re ready to move on.”
The railroaders swore on their mothers’ heads that nobody would go anywhere near those red wagons while they drew breath. So Longarm went on and, finding nobody seated on those fold-down steps this time, strode almost to the back door before he saw the naked lady giving herself a sponge bath at the counter inside.
She saw him at the same time and hunkered down, with her knees and elbows only managing to hide the most private details of her willowy young body.
Longarm moved out of the line of sight, calling out in too cheerful a tone, “I brung you some grub to tide you over till you figure out your next moves, Miss Rowena. I’m sorry I surprised you like that. I didn’t see nothing
