between one hundred and forty and one hundred and fifty pounds. They were square built with square shoulders and square hands and thick necks and they both looked very solid and very capable. The father, Robert, was not quite as blond as his son, but his eyes were equally blue. The son, Rufus, had a little thinner face, but Longarm reckoned it would square up to match his father’s when a few years had passed.
While the bacon was frying, they sat around the big table and discussed the matter at hand. As best as he could, Longarm explained his plan. Tom Hunter was the most enthusiastic. The Goodmans seemed to have a number of doubts. Robert Goodman said, “I don’t see how you’re going to be able to force him to keep his word. That’s what I don’t see.”
Longarm said, “You leave that part to me. That’s law work. And by the way, speaking of law work, Mr. Hawkins here is already sworn in as an auxiliary deputy marshal. Y’all three are now sworn in as auxiliary deputy marshals.”
Rufus, the son, said, “Ain’t we supposed to hold up our hands or something?”
Longarm gave him a dry look. He said, “Son, it ain’t the ceremony that counts. But do understand this: you are now duly constituted law officers, and you’ve got to act within the law, whatever you do. I’m responsible for you, so I’m going to make damned sure that you don’t misuse it. But, being within the law, whatever you do will be legal.”
Rufus said, jerking his head toward the room where Archie Barrett was still yelling at the top of his voice, “Is what you’re doing with that fellow in there inside the law?”
Longarm said, “Son, whatever I do is within the law. That don’t apply to all of y’all, but it applies to me.”
Mr. Hawkins said, “You’re pretty easy with that law. You kind of make it up as you go along?”
“Why, Mr. Hawkins, how can you make such a statement?”
Hawkins shook his head. “Because you have shanghaied me. I’m not even supposed to be here, and now you’re laying out plans that are going to keep me here four or five more days. What am I supposed to tell my company? That I’ve quit them and gone into law work?”
Longarm said, “I’ll give you a note for your boss. It’ll make it all right.”
But it was Robert Goodman who said what Longarm thought needed to be said: “Well, Marshal, I don’t have any idea if this plan of yours will work, either, but I do know there ain’t many ways that these folks can be got at, and your way sounds as good as any I can think of if you give me ten years to think of it. What’s important to me and to Rufus and to Tom is that somebody from the outside is trying to help us. The way it was before is that we’ve been sitting down here being picked off one by one. They’ve took the weak ones and now they are down to just us. We haven’t succumbed so easy, but it would be just a matter of time before they wiped us out. The only reason they haven’t just massacred the bunch of us is that I figure that it would have caused so much of a ruckus that maybe even somebody in the state capital would have cared. I’m with you, me and Rufus, all the way, and I appreciate what you’re doing.”
Longarm said, “Thank you, Mr. Goodman. We’ll just roll the dice and see what happens.”
Tom Hunter said, “One thing’s for certain: it can’t be no worse than what it was. I was about a week from up and leaving.”
Robert Goodman added, “I doubt if we would have lasted the week. We’re down to eight cows. We couldn’t have gone on much longer.”
Tom Hunter got up to turn the bacon over and to stir the beans. Hawkins said, cocking an ear toward the room they had Archie Barrett in, “He is kicking up a ruckus, ain’t he?”
Rufus said, “Marshal Long, you just plan to starve him down? Just hold him down until he comes to his senses?”
Longarm said, “That’s the only way I can do it, son. I don’t know of any other way.”
The boy said with a grim look, “How about you just turn me loose in there and lock the door behind me? I reckon I can get him to agree to just about anything, and it’ll take a hell of a lot less time.”
Longarm laughed. He said, “Yeah, we could take some skin off him, but not right off the bat. Let’s do it this way for a while and see how it looks. I have a feeling he won’t be too hard a nut to crack. He looks a might on the soft side to me.”
Hawkins nodded his head on his scrawny neck. “Archie Barrett might have been a pretty hard man at one time in his life, but that’s long since past. He couldn’t drink black coffee now if there was a prize for it. He’s got to have cream for his coffee and butter for his bread. Hell, I bet he can’t even eat corn bread. He eats nothing but light bread now. No, he’s soft, Marshal. He’s soft, but how willing he is to give in to the kind of demands you’re going to put on him, I don’t know.”
“We’ll see,” Longarm said.
From the small kitchen, Tom Hunter said, “You boys better get in here and get you a plate. What there is, is ready. You may not want it, but it’s all we’ve got.”
While they ate, Hawkins said to Longarm, “You know, Marshal, I don’t know if it’s occurred to you or not, but you ain’t even told Archie Barrett what you want of him. You reckon he might be willing by now?”
Longarm had to wait a moment while he swallowed a mouthful of very dry corn bread. He shot Tom Hunter a look as if to accuse him of being a dangerous man in the kitchen. He said to Hawkins, “No, I don’t see any point of burdening the man’s mind any more than need be. Right now, he’s in that room and he’s imagining worse things than I could ever tell him. Best thing, I reckon, that you can do with him is to let him sit and stew for a while. If you ever get in a gunfight with a fellow, Mr. Hawkins, make some excuse to put it off for an hour. You’d be surprised at how shaky that other fellow’s hand will get in an hour.”
Hawkins gave him a sardonic look. “What about your own hand?”
“Mine shakes all the time,” Longarm said. “It don’t make a difference to me.”
Young Rufus Goodman said, “Marshal, you know they’re going to come looking for him, don’t you?”
Longarm nodded. “I would reckon, but I don’t think this is the first place they’ll come. It’ll take them some time to even get an idea that he’s missing. I’ve also got an idea that he’s got two brothers that might not much care. He’s been the big cheese over them for quite some time, as I understand it. They might not want him found.”
