Hoods. The reason I want your help in particular is that I believe you mentioned having done some hiking and climbing in the area. As a hobby, I think you said.?
?That?s right.?
?Paul Markham is trying a run for it on foot, Batson.?
?No place for him to run to,? the security chief insisted.
?Apparently he thinks there is. Or at least thinks he can hide out long enough for things to cool off down here and allow him to slip out on a train eventually.?
Batson snorted his disbelief about that.
?Markham is the man who murdered that woman. He?s hiding somewhere up there with the money he was sup posed to split with her from their slave trade. I expect wherever he?s gone to ground, he started out from the whorehouse and climbed up past your tailings dump on his way to it. He stopped to beat his partner to death rather than have her slow him down. By now I?d guess he?s found his hole and crawled into it.?
Batson thought about that for a moment. ?From town past the tailings side of our operation and then on up
yeah, I can think of a couple trails he might?ve taken. And some prospect holes and a few natural caves where he might think he could hide out if he?s got supplies with him.?
?He does,? Longarm said.
Batson nodded. ?I?ll find the son of a bitch for you, Marshal.?
?If you can take care of that, Arnold, I can handle the White Hoods and the recovery of the payroll money.?
?No problem with my end of it, Marshal. I?ll take a couple of boys with me, and we?ll have him down in two days. Less?n that, maybe.?
?Make sure your people are armed. Even a rabbit will fight if you corner it.?
?I know just who t? take with me.?
?Good.? Longarm smiled. ?Before you leave you might wanta stop at the jail and pick up a set of Markham?s own handcuffs to haul him back in.?
Batson smiled. ?I?ll do just that, Marshal.?
Longarm left the Arrabie and walked down to the train depot where he found a still irate trainmaster and a bored-looking telegrapher in the office shanty.
?No,? he told them, ?I haven?t changed my mind about allowing your damn train to run, so don?t ask. But I do want to send a wire to my boss in Denver.?
That news did not arouse any noticeable amount of pleasure with the railroad employees, but Longarm ignored them and wrote out the message he wanted sent to Billy Vail.
Time was entirely on his side now that the robber gang was bottled up at the head of Thunderbird Canyon, and for a change he had the luxury of calling in reinforcements no matter how long that might take.
Chapter Thirty
Anxiety knotted Henry?s stomach like an acid-drenched fist as he paced the railroad platform at Meade Park.
He pulled his watch out and snapped the cover open once again. He had been doing it every two or three min utes since midmorning. Not that it did any good, of course. But he had to do something to alleviate the frustration he was feeling.
He wheeled and went back to the railroad office once again. He had been doing that every five or ten minutes, with no greater result than rechecking his watch.
?Try them again,? he said.
?Marshal,? the exasperated telegrapher groaned, ?I just tried them ten minutes ago.?
?I know you did. Now try them again.?
?Yes, sir.? The telegrapher rolled his eyes in a gesture of sorely tried patience. But he did as the bespectacled deputy demanded and once again bent to his key.
The man tapped out the transmission code, waited and tried again.
There was no response.
The line remained dead.
?I?m sorry, Marshal. Nothing.?
?Damnit,? Henry snapped.
He went back out onto the platform where the Meade Park town marshal and two deputies were waiting on a bench, obviously not nearly so concerned as Henry was.
?The downrun is half an hour overdue,? Henry said.
?Thirty-four minutes,? the town marshal agreed calmly.
?Something has happened up there, damnit, and I am afraid I know what it is. The White Hoods hit the train yesterday afternoon, and they?ve gotten away somehow.?
?I keep trying to tell you, Marshal,? the local lawman said patiently, ?no matter what?s happened up there, there?s no way out except past us.?
?But why is that wire dead? And why hasn?t the train come down this morning? Can you tell me that??
