Asher Nelson let go and the rifle clattered to the tiles.
Longarm reached out with his left hand, got a fistful of Asher’s shirt, and pulled him into the house with the barrel of his gun still pressed against the man’s forehead.
He said, “Now, you walk right past me and down that hall. I’m going to have this .44 in the small of your back, and if you even flinch from a direct course into that living room I’m going to break your back, right there in the smallest part of it, and you’re going to get to lay right there in the floor and not even be able to move your arms or your legs while you die.”
Asher Nelson did not say anything, but as he walked past Longarm, he glanced at the young deputy and said, “Hello, Deputy Henderson. I see that you are enjoying your freedom.”
Longarm whipped the .44 revolver up and smashed the barrel down on the top of Asher Nelson’s head. His heavy felt hat took most of the brunt of the blow, but it still staggered the man. Longarm said, his voice tight and vicious, “Keep your mouth shut, you sonofabitch.”
Asher straightened himself up. He said, “That was uncalled for, Marshal. You didn’t need to resort to that.”
Longarm put his boot in the middle of Nelson’s back and shoved him as hard as he could. The man stumbled a few steps forward, and then went sprawling on the hard tiles of the floor.
Longarm moved up to where he was lying and kicked him in the leg. He said, “Get up, you sonofabitch.”
Asher Nelson rose slowly to his feet, rubbing his left elbow where it had hit the hard tiles. He said, “I’m surprised at you, Deputy Long. You’ve won. I would have expected a little more magnanimity than this, a little more sportsmanship.”
Longarm said, “I want to see you walk straight into that room where this all started. Then we’ll have us a little talk about sportsmanship.”
He had Asher Nelson sit in the same place where he had sat before. Longarm took his seat on the divan where he had sat with the low table in front of him.
Asher said, “What do we do now, Deputy Long? You have won, obviously. Both of my brothers are dead. I never thought it would come to this. We made a bad mistake about you.”
Longarm said, “The bad mistake you and your brothers made was when you first put that poster out. No, the first bad mistake that you made was when you first thought up this idea. You don’t go hunting people like big game. It’s against the law. It’s against the law of nature, it’s against the law of the United States, and it’s against my law.”
Asher Nelson shrugged. If he was sorry for the way things had turned out, there was no sign of it in his face. He said, “Would you mind telling me exactly how you tricked us so easily?”
“No,” Longarm said. “Not at all. I’ll be glad to.” But he was looking toward where young Henderson was standing, staring out the south windows. Longarm had deliberately not told him where to sit or what to do. He had wanted to see what the young man would do on his own. When they had come into the room, Henderson had gone and looked at the rack of high-powered rifles. Then he had just gone over and stared out the window.
Longarm said, “Well, the first thing I did was discover that little notch you put in the sole of the sandal you gave me. I don’t know whose bright idea that was, but that was where you went wrong in the first place.”
Nelson nodded. “That was Frank’s idea. The problem is that we have ten or twelve Mexicans working around here and they all wear the same kind of footgear. Frank thought we wouldn’t be able to pick up your track from all the footprints that our workers were making. He thought you wouldn’t notice just a little nick on the heel of your sandal or huarache, as it is more correctly called.”
Longarm said, “But I did, and after that, it was very easy to mislead you. I got another sandal, and I only wore the one with the telltale when I wanted you to go where I wanted you to go. Of course, you all three lied when you assured me how fair you were going to play. You didn’t play fair, Nelson. Even within the design of this insane scheme of yours, you cheated. Claude was the only one who came with the revolver. He was the only one that walked, but he was arrogant. He only carried one shell.”
Asher smiled at that. “Yes, Claude was always a little too arrogant for his own good. Taking only one cartridge was both good and bad. He said if he didn’t kill or wound you with the first, he didn’t want to furnish you with a weapon you could use against the rest of us. He was right.”
Longarm said, “But it really didn’t make any difference.”
Asher Nelson nodded. “Apparently not. Then what happened?”
In graphic detail, Longarm told him how he had killed both of the brothers and how he had seen Asher leave the ranch house, five hours before his time was to be. He said, “You couldn’t even wait until you were supposed to come out. You cheated then.”
Asher nodded. “Yes, that’s true. I was worried. Claude should have returned. When he didn’t and then Frank didn’t show, I knew something was wrong.”
“And you took a high-powered rifle with a scope on it, just as you said you wouldn’t. And you took a horse, just as you said you wouldn’t.”
Asher Nelson said, “Yes, but you’ve got to understand something. At that point, I realized I was up against a much more dangerous enemy than I had counted on. I had to change the rules. You must understand that I knew we were in trouble and it had become the survival of the fittest. I knew I couldn’t beat you at the contest as we had laid out the rules.”
Longarm suddenly leaned forward into Asher Nelson’s face. He said, the words low so that Henderson couldn’t hear him, “What did you do to that young deputy, you sonofabitch. He’s withdrawn into a shell.”
Asher Nelson looked surprised. “We didn’t do anything to him. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You scared the hell out of him. How did you do it?”
Asher shook his head. “We didn’t threaten him, we didn’t do anything. We gave him three meals a day, we offered him whiskey, which he declined, and we offered him a woman, which he also declined. All we did was put him in a room for four days—a windowless room, yes. I’m sure it was frightening, I’m sure it was lonely. But we
