“Dull Sword went to see Agent MacNall. He took your horse with him although my people would have seen to its care.”
“Dull Sword?” Longarm asked.
Tall Man grinned and barked out a short, sharp little laugh. “It is the name we call him by.”
“Prob’ly fits,” Longarm commented.
“Yes, so we believe.”
“Tell you what, old friend. Whyn’t you point me toward this Agent MacNall. I expect I’d best fetch up with the colonel. Wouldn’t hurt t’ talk to MacNall either.”
“It is too far for a man to walk in those frozen moccasins,” Tall Man said, looking pointedly down at Longarm’s calf-high boots. Apparently the boots, which were perfectly comfortable from where Longarm stood, appeared restrictive and heavy to the Indian’s eye.
“You got a better idea?” Longarm asked.
“Yes. I do.” Tall Man motioned to the nearest Crow and said something in a crackle of swift words. The young warrior nodded, pleased with being appointed to do something for this chieftain and his guest perhaps, and dashed off in the direction of the horse herd. When he returned he was leading a pair of heavily muscled ponies, one a tri- color pinto with a ring of white around its eyes and the other a bright chestnut with the short barrel and dished face that suggested Spanish barb breeding somewhere back along its bloodline.
“Choose one,” Tall Man offered.
With no hesitation Longarm reached for the single rein that was tied loosely around the chestnut’s lower jaw. No hesitation because everyone knew that a horse with the white showing around its eyes was no damn good. Tall Man wasn’t going to put anything over on him that easily.
“You are sure you want this one?” Tall Man asked, confirming Longarm’s suspicions. Longarm obviously had been expected to choose the flashier, taller, sleeker-bodied pinto over the tough and solid little barb.
“I’m sure.” Longarm took a quick step to give himself some momentum and leaped onto the chestnut’s back.
It had been a while since he’d ridden bareback, and he was plenty glad the chestnut stood steady for him while he shifted his butt and found a secure seat that did not trap his balls tight against the pony’s backbone and turn them into mashed cojones.
Tall Man swung onto the pinto’s back and seemed instantly to become a part of the animal. Longarm had no idea how anyone could make that look so … so natural and easy, dammit. Especially since Tall Man was a good head shorter than Longarm and the pinto at least two fingers taller than the chestnut.
Tall Man pointed. “You see there, Longarm? Beyond the creek. That rise? Two rocks and then one?”
“I see where you mean.”
“The agency buildings are past that rise, just beyond the two rocks. I will race you there. Unless you are afraid to lose to Lo the Stinking Indian.”
“Somebody been giving you trouble, old friend? Remember, I been downwind from you today. I didn’t come across nothing that’d wrinkle my nose.”
“Forgive me. I was rude to a man who has long been my friend.”
“There’s nothing to forgive.”
“Then will you race with an old friend, my friend?”
“Hell, yes, what’s your wager?”
“One twist of my tobacco against one handful of your cigars,” Tall Man suggested.
“That sounds fair. But I’ll be damned if I know what I’ll do with your nasty tobacco when I already got these fine cheroots to smoke.”
Tall Man grinned again. “First, my friend, you must win. Then it is time to think about the spoils.”
Whenever you say.”
“You see the meadowlark behind the grass there?”
“I see it,” Longarm said.
“When it flies. That is when we go,” Tall Man said.
“Fair enough. I-“
The bird took wing, and Tall Man’s pinto was two jumps gone before Longarm jabbed the chestnut with his heels and joined the race.
Joined the race? Not hardly.
The plain fact was, Longarm’d been jobbed.
Tall Man had seen his chance and climbed all over it.
That pinto could spot an antelope half a furlong and come in four lengths ahead, Longarm was sure.
Hell, he’d never seen a horse as quick as that pinto was. Seemed that way anyhow.
But jeez, wherever would an ignorant savage like old Lo there—if that’s what Tall Man wanted to be called— learn about white men’s aversion to horses with white eyes?
Wherever or however it had happened, Tall Man had taken advantage of it to make sure he was riding the pinto
