Caster gave an irritated motion with his head. “The hell with what kind of sack it is. Just a sack. Put the money there and then close the door to yore room. But don’t lock it. Then go stand in the lobby. Better yet, go in the bar and have a drink. Wait ten minutes before you go back to your room.”
Longarm stood up. “You going to pick it up?”
“Sonofabitch!” Caster burst out. “Won’t you never learn? Just do what you’re told. And you better get you some drovers. I’m turning your cattle loose mid-morning, tomorrow. So be sure you have that other twenty-five hundred ready.”
“You’re turning them loose for me to drive north?”
“That’s what I said, ain’t it?”
“What about Mister Mull?”
“You just never mind about Mister Mull.”
“But I’m paying for-“
“I know what you’re paying for and you’ll get it. Now get the hell out of here and see to yore end. Remember, don’t waste no time.”
Longarm stopped off at the bank and picked up the remaining twenty-five hundred dollars on deposit there. He did it in case Caster had someone following him. He had them put it in a small canvas sack that had the name of the bank printed on it. He figured the other twenty-five hundred stashed inside his mattress was safe enough. He felt almost certain that Caster intended to pick up the money himself, but he still didn’t know about Mull and he was not about to trust Jasper White to make an identification for him.
Then, just as he was stepping up on the porch of the Hamilton Hotel, an idea struck him.
The daytime desk clerk was a smart young man and eagerly accommodating. Longarm risked the few moments it took him to speak with the clerk. “Look here,” he said, “there’s a man might be coming in today or tomorrow. Old friend of mine. I’d like to surprise him. Name is James Mull. He didn’t say, but I got an idea he might be staying at this hotel. Wonder if you’d tip me a wink if he checks in, without letting him know. He played a little joke on me last time and I’d like to get him back.” He slid a five-dollar gold piece across the desk.
“Why, yessir, Mister Long,” the clerk said. “I can shore handle that.” He put the five dollars in his pocket with a deft move. “As a matter of fact Mister Mull stays with us quite often. But I won’t let him know you asked after him.”
Longarm gave the clerk a wink and moved off toward his room. He couldn’t imagine such a simple solution hadn’t occurred to him before. The Hamilton was easily the best hotel in Laredo and certainly the most respectable. It was also near the customs office. Unless Mull was going to wait at the depot between trains or hang out in a saloon, he was going to need a hotel room. It would have to be the Hamilton.
Caster had let Longarm sweat for two days before he’d sent for him to give him instructions about the money and let him know he’d go through with the deal. Longarm wasn’t sure if that was because Caster had had to clear the situation with Mull or if he was just being suspicious and careful. But it didn’t matter, not now when it appeared he was going through with it. And Longarm liked the fact that Caster himself would be handling the money. He hadn’t admitted to it, but Longarm greatly doubted that there’d be anyone else going into his room.
He let himself in, went straight to the bed, and slipped the canvas sack in between the mattress and the coil springs. He was on the point of leaving when he noticed that the window curtains were pulled back and the window itself was halfway up. His room was on the ground floor, at the back of the hotel. Looking out his window, you could see a pasture, and beyond that, part of the town. But anyone walking behind the hotel could see in through the ground-floor windows, and Longarm didn’t think that Jay Caster would want to be seen in a hotel room fetching out twenty-five hundred dollars from somebody else’s mattress. He put the sash down even though a nice breeze was blowing through, and then pulled the curtains to. After that he took a quick look around, let himself out, and walked down the hall and across the lobby to the bar. He didn’t see Caster, but then he didn’t expect to.
As he sat down at a table his mind turned to Austin Davis. Austin had been gone four days and once again Longarm wondered how he was doing with Dulcima. Either he’d won her over or she’d killed him. She didn’t seem like a woman who went in for halfway measures. Longarm sat there, sipping at a whiskey and dreading the thought of going to see Raymond San Diego. But he would need eight or ten vaqueros the next morning when Caster turned his cattle loose, and Caster had suggested San Diego as someone who could round him up a crew. Of course Longarm had no intention of trailing the herd north, but he had to keep on acting like he was.
He took his time finishing his drink, then got up, paid his score, and went back to his room. He could see that the bedclothes and spread had been disturbed and, when he looked under the mattress, the canvas sack of cash was gone. Turning around, he sat down on the bed and rummaged around in his pocket until he found a cigarillo and a match. When he got the cigarillo lit and drawing he sat there, blowing out clouds of blue smoke, giving the whole proposition a good thinking over. As far as he was concerned, Caster had taken the bait. Now all that remained was to gather him and Mull up in the same sack and the job was done.
That afternoon he rode over to the quarantine pens and looked across the sprawling mass of cattle. As best he could tell, his cattle had not been moved. It was difficult, however, since he had only the five head he had marked in his mind to watch for. They did not brand cattle in Mexico, which made the job a good deal harder, but Longarm couldn’t see any changes. Perhaps Caster and his crew did their work by a falling moon. If so, they had to work at a pretty good clip to get nearly a thousand cattle up to the release pens, which were almost a quarter of a mile away. He still couldn’t figure out how they did it, but that part really made no difference. Caster would tell him when the time was right, if he was still curious about the matter.
When he got back to the hotel he went into the dining room and made a supper of beef stew and chocolate cake. He was still being careful of his bad tooth, which so far had not been bothering him. He intended to return the favor by not eating anything that would irritate it. Coming out of the dining room, he started to make for the bar, which was just off the lobby, but when he realized it was too early to find a poker game, he veered off, crossed the lobby, and headed down the first-floor hall to his room. He used his key on the door, which was unusual because most places he stayed the key wasn’t much use, since the lock seldom worked. But the Hamilton was different. Using his key was also unusual because Longarm seldom locked his door, seldom having anything in his room worth stealing. But now he had twenty-five hundred dollars in the mattress and he guessed that was worth stealing. He swung the door open and there was Austin Davis stretched out on the bed with a glass of Longarm’s whiskey resting on his stomach. He looked tired and grimy, but he held up a hand in greeting.
Longarm shut the door behind him. “How the hell did you get in here?” he said.
Davis waved vaguely behind him. “Came in through the window. Them sashes ain’t nothing to raise up and open. Ain’t got no lock on them.”
