Longarm smiled. “Oh, I generally regret everything I do. But the funny thing about it is that the other fellow usually regrets it more. Now, get busy.”
Within half an hour, two men had been dispatched to both ranches to fetch back the checkbooks. Archie Barrett said, “Now, I want some food and a drink of whiskey.”
Longarm said, “There’s only one last thing, Mr. Barrett, and I’m sure you won’t mind doing this since it’s for your own good.” He turned to Tom Hunter. “Tom, would you give me two more pieces of paper?”
While he was waiting for the paper, he turned to George Hawkins and said, “Mr. Hawkins, what’s one of your top saddles?”
Hawkins thought for a moment. “Well, I reckon that would be the Cheyenne model. It’s a double girthed, deep seated saddle with a high roping pommel. Comes with a matching breastplate.”
“What does it sell for?”
“We generally sell it, shipping charges included, for around one hundred and forty-five dollars.”
“Good.” Longarm took the two pieces of paper and wrote out an order for ten saddles to be bought by Mr. Myers and ten saddles to be bought by Mr. Barrett. He handed Mr. Myers the pen and said, “You just bought ten saddles. My deputy has been put to some considerable trouble on your account, and I think he ought to be compensated.”
Myers looked up at him with rage in his eyes that slowly dissolved to resignation. He signed the order and then shoved it away from him. In a moment, Archie Barrett did the same. Longarm took the two orders and turned around and handed them to George Hawkins, who cackled in glee.
Longarm said, “See, you tell me that the law business don’t pay? Why sure and you’ll get your two dollars a day on top of that.”
Hawkins said, “Well, you never did explain it to me that way before. If you had explained it before, I would have just volunteered.”
“Volunteered? You wouldn’t have volunteered, George, if I had thrown in a velvet easy chair to go with it.”
An hour later, Tom Hunter and the two Goodmans were riding for Junction with the two checks in hand. Longarm’s instructions to them had been simple. There would be three people who would sign each check: Tom Hunter, Robert Goodman, and Mrs. Thompson. Before they had left, he had promised Myers and Barrett what would happen to them if there was any problem with the checks. He said, “You don’t want to find out, that I promise you.”
But all that was over now, and the Settlement Association was well on its way to being a working institution. Longarm said to Jake Myers and Archie Barrett, “Now, all right. Get your gear, get your clothes, and get anything else you’ve left here, including your stink, and get the hell out of here. Take those men down the hill with you. And you better hope that I don’t see either one of you again, because if I do, it’s going to be for the purpose of killing you. Understand me?”
Neither man would look at him. Myers never had gotten any food, and Longarm had said, “You certainly ain’t going to get any of my whiskey. I barely will allow close friends to share that. You can imagine just how much chance you’ve got.”
Now there was no one left but Longarm and Hawkins. Together, they gathered up their gear and walked across the floor that was littered with brass cartridge cases. They went out, saddled their horses, and started the slow ride to town.
Hawkins said, as they started down the hill, “You know, Longarm, sometimes the leather business gets a little dull. It kind of does a man good to get some excitement in his life every once in a while.”
“George, what do you think Mrs. Thompson is going to think about all this?”
“I think she’ll be right pleased. If we hurry along, we should get there in time for supper, and you can tell her all about it.”
Longarm said, “We’ll both tell her about it. You had a big hand in this, George. I’m going to see to it that you get a medal and two dollars a day.”
“How many days I got coming?”
“Oh, three.”
Hawkins shook his head. “Six whole dollars. I don’t have any idea what I’ll do with that kind of money.”
Longarm said, “You could lose it to me playing poker.”
“No, it’s too hard. It’s hard to lose to you, Marshal.”
Longarm gave him an eye. He said, “You’re liable to talk yourself into losing a little more than six dollars if you’re not careful.”
Hawkins was silent for a time. Then, as they neared town, he said, “You know, Marshal, that was about the slickest way out of that mess I could have imagined. How did you ever think of a way to do that so that it would kind of make the best out of a bad situation?”
Longarm laughed slightly. He said, “George, it wasn’t so much that I thought that up. It was just that I couldn’t think of anything else. It happened by kind of a process of elimination, you might say.”
“Well, it worked out for the best. You reckon they’ll keep to their end of the bargain?”
Longarm looked at him and said grimly, “I know I will. If they make one little slip, they’re going to wish they had never been born.”
Chapter 11
It took several more days to see to the setting up of the Grit Settlement Association. Word spread like wildfire, and the town was soon thronged with people who had been struggling on small farms and ranches. They clogged and crowded Mrs. Thompson’s boardinghouse until rules had to be established. Longarm presided over the rule- making and the installation of the officers. After that, it was out of his hands. The board consisted of Robert
