She smiled and it was a delight to see. She said, “I suppose when you leave. I’ve got a grandstand seat, and I don’t want to miss this.”
Longarm said slowly, “Might be, Mrs. Thompson, you don’t have as great a seat as you think you do. Might be that the horse race is going to be run someplace else—someplace completely out of sight of here.”
“Oh, I’m sure that at least I’ll be able to hear the sound of the race, if not actually see it.”
After a few more words, she took her empty coffee cup and went back into the kitchen and brought him a piece of peach pie. She said, “I’ve got work to do, Marshal. I’ll leave you to finish your meal.”
When he was through eating, he went upstairs to his room, got a bottle of whiskey and a glass, and then went down and knocked on Mr. Hawkins’s door. A gruff, “Come in!” came from inside. Longarm opened the door and looked in. Hawkins was sitting at a small table in his shirtsleeves, wearing sleeve garters. He was playing solitaire.
Longarm said, “Who’s winning?”
Hawkins looked up. “I would be, if I’d allow myself to cheat. Things have come to a sorry pass when a man won’t even allow himself to cheat in a game of solitaire.”
“Do you mind if we have that talk now?” said Longarm.
Hawkins ran his hand through his thinning hair. He said, “I was halfway hoping that we’d never get around to it. I was halfway hoping I had just dreamed that I had become … what’s the word … an assistant deputy marshal?”
“Auxiliary deputy marshal.”
“Well,” said Hawkins, “I was hoping that the whole thing was a bad dream, and that it all wasn’t going to take place. You might as well come in and sit down. I see you brought your supplies with you, so you must be going to make a stretch out of it.”
Longarm walked in, kicking the door behind himself, and sat down in the chair facing Hawkins. He poured himself out a glass and then put the cork back in the bottle. He said, “I take it you don’t drink out of preference.”
Hawkins looked up. He said, “I don’t drink because I can’t drink. I like it too well. You get me started with one, and two weeks later, you’ll find me in some town I don’t even know how I got to, lying in bed with some woman I’ve never seen before, and without a penny in my pocket. You follow what I’m talking about?”
Longarm laughed. He said, “Oh, yeah, I understand that.”
“So you just go ahead and guzzle all the firewater you want to. I’d just as soon stay in my right mind.”
“It doesn’t bother you if I drink in front of you?”
Hawkins said, “Hell, no. It just reinforces the idea that I’m doing the right thing. At least I know I’m sane. Of course, I’m not so sure about you, after you told me about that damned idea. Would you mind telling me what kind of saddle I’m supposed to lure Archie Barrett into town to see?”
Longarm took a sip of whiskey. “Well, now that you mention it, I have been giving that some thought, and I might have an idea on the subject.”
Hawkins said, “Well, it’s going to have to be one hell of a saddle. That’s all I can tell you.”
“You know, the president of Mexico got himself killed not too long ago. Now, what if your company just happened to have gotten a-hold of his number-one, main parade saddle. What do you think of that?”
“It’d be a damned miracle. That’s what I think. Hell, a saddle like that …” He whistled. “A saddle like that would be worth plenty. Hell, I’ve heard that it’s gold-mounted, made out of the finest leather. Yeah, something like that would definitely influence a man like Archie Barrett. But how come I don’t take it to him?”
“Because your company has sent it down here special. There’s two fellows that are guarding it, and it can’t get out of their sight. They’ve got it in a wagon here in town and they’re going on and the team’s too tired to make it out to the Barrett ranch. You’ve got this one opportunity to show it to him. You tell him that you wired your headquarters and got them to come out of their way into Grit with that saddle. You ain’t got much time, but it’s his only chance to look at it.”
Hawkins was getting a gleam in his eye as if he actually had such a saddle for sale. “You know, a saddle like that would fetch right around two thousand five hundred dollars, maybe three thousand dollars.” He whistled again. My commission on that would run right around five, six hundred dollars. That’s not a bad deal. You know, I can see where Archie Barrett would be interested in a saddle like that and he could afford it, priced at three thousand dollars. A man like that, the more he pays for something, the more he thinks it’s worth. Yeah, yeah, that just might work. Maybe even three thousand five hundred dollars. What do you think about that?”
Longarm was watching in amazement as the leather goods drummer worked himself up. He said, “Why stop there? Why not make it a four thousand dollar saddle?”
Hawkins nodded vigorously. He said, “That’s even better. Yeah, that’s even better.” He stopped and looked at Longarm. He said, “By the way, how did my company manage to come into possession of that saddle?”
Longarm said, “Why, that’s easy. It was stolen out of the palace by some of them revolutionaries and one of them wound up in Del Rio and he sold it to one of your drummers that was working down there. Now y’all have got it to sell. It was brought up to the border and it fell into your hands. Now it can fall into Mr. Archie Barrett’s hands. He’ll be the envy of the territory. Jake Myers won’t have anything like that.
Hawkins said dryly, “Why don’t you just leave the selling to me, Marshal? I believe I can come up with a talk that will work.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Hawkins. I didn’t mean to get into your territory. I was just trying to help out.”
Hawkins sat there thinking. “I’m looking for holes in this proposition. Now, you do know that Mr. Archie Barrett is not going to ride into Grit by himself. He’s going to have two or three men with him, and they won’t be no second-rate gunslingers, either. He’s got some first-class hands.”
Longarm said dryly, “Why don’t you leave that to me, Mr. Hawkins. You do the selling, and I’ll do the other part. That’s my job.”
