He was pinned down in a very precarious position against a man he knew to be smart, skilled, and willing. He was very low on ammunition, lower on water, and had no food whatsoever. He was exposed to a brutal sun, which would make his need for water all the greater, and help was a minimum of two or three days away, even assuming the help could find their way. He couldn’t get to a horse, and even if he could, the animal wasn’t fit to travel. Meanwhile, his adversary was in the shade, had food and water, not to mention whiskey, and was in a very defensible position. More than likely Jack Shaw was well mounted with spare horses to boot. Looked at from a realistic point of view, Longarm had to admit to himself that he really didn’t have the best of it.
Shaw called from the cabin. “Longarm, that packhorse of yours is moving around.”
Longarm looked over his shoulder. He could see the poor animal staggering around aimlessly. Each time he tried to take a step he seemed to step on his lead rope. It jerked his head and made the animal rear back in fright. One of the horses behind the barn nickered. The pack animal lifted his head and flicked his ears.
Longarm heard a creaking. He looked toward the cabin. There was a little windmill behind the cabin, and enough of a breeze had sprung up to turn its rusty blades. it would be pumping water, and Longarm hoped the packhorse would smell it and somehow get over to the corral. He said, “Jack, if that packhorse gets over your way, how about letting him in the corral so he can get some water?”
“Why don’t you lead him over?”
“C’mon, Jack, this ain’t Something to fun around about.”
“You must be funning around if you think I’m going to leave off watching you and go out the back of the cabin to let your horse in. I reckon when I come back I’d find you sitting in my rocking chair and drinking my whiskey and waiting to put a bullet in my belly.”
“You know that ain’t my style. I give you my word I won’t move an inch if you can help the horse.”
“Ain’t worth the risk, Longarm. Not even as much as I think of you. Hell, I don’t even trust myself that much.”
Longarm swore. “Then goddammit, put a bullet through his head and put him out of his misery.” The horses in the corral nickered again, and this time the packhorse answered them. Longarm saw him putting his head up, trying to smell, but the wind was wrong for him to scent the water.
Shaw said, “Why don’t you put a bullet in him.” There was a pause, and then Longarm heard Shaw chuckle. “Or are you low on ammunition? Seems I recall you never carried extra shells in your gunbelt. Said they were too heavy. I don’t neither for the same reason, but then I got me several boxes full right here. I bet you got just what you bailed Off your horse with when you flung yourself down in that little ditch. You know I missed you on purpose, don’t you?”
“You gonna bullshit me, Jack?”
“Hell, if I’d of killed you who would I have to talk to? I was getting lonesome till I saw you come out of those foothills way back yonder. I knew it was you when you wasn’t no more than a speck.”
Longarm stared at the baked earth beneath his face and shook his head.
He didn’t want to think about it too severely at the moment, but he was pretty sure he should have handled the situation differently. If his horses had had one more mile in them, he’d have ridden around the cabin and looked it over from the rear. That way he’d have had Shaw boxed in, unless he cared to flee on foot, which wouldn’t be very smart.
Longarm wasn’t sure if he was going to get out of the mess he’d gotten himself in, but he desperately dreaded having to write the report that would be due following the outcome. His boss, Billy Vail, who delighted in any stumbles Longarm made, would never let him forget it.
Shaw said, “Reason I mentioned about that packhorse of yours is that if he comes wanderin’ over here and wants to get in a line between us, I’ll have to drop him before he can do that. You be close enough now. I wouldn’t care to have you come rushing forward and using the animal for cover.”
“Still thinking ahead, eh, Jack?”
“Never be as good at it as you are.”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m in this ditch and you’re in the shade.”
“Ain’t gettin’ hot, is it?”
“No, no. Fact is I was just wishing I had my ducking jacket. Getting a little chilly out here.”
He heard Shaw laugh. He could feel his shirt getting resoaked for about the third time that day. He reckoned the garment was mostly salt by now. A drop of sweat fell off his nose as he wiped his brow, trying to keep the salt out of his eyes. He glanced up at the relentless sun, trying to gauge how long until dusk. He said, “What time you got, Jack?”
“Why, you got a train to catch?”
“Just curious. My watch stopped.”
He could hear Shaw chuckle. Then the outlaw said, “I reckon you are calculating on how long it is to dark. I think you got it in your mind to maybe make some kind of play in the blackness. Well, friend Longarm, I’d chuck that one out the window. Gonna be moon bright. Moon going to be as full tonight as it gets. Going to be that way for two, three more nights. Hell, if you had one, you’d be able to read a newspaper be so light.”
Longarm cursed silently to himself “Well, I’m glad to have your word on that, Jack.”
“What the hell you think I’m doing still here with the border no more than a day and a half away? Waiting for a dark night. I’d just as soon folks kept on looking for me around here instead of stirring up the Mexican authorities. You know that Mex law, Longarm. They don’t give a damn about me, but if they get word about how much gold I’m carrying, they are likely to take a right smart interest. So I kind of planned to be just as quiet and easy when I cross on over. Sort of keep it my secret.”
“Well, looks like we’re going to have plenty of time for a good visit, Jack.” Shaw said, “Well, I don’t know about that, Longarm. I got a look at the size of that canteen you was toting when you scrambled for that ditch. Even if it was full, which I doubt, you’d have a hell of a time making two days on that piddling amount of water. That sun will sweat the fluid out of you, Custis. I know. It’ll draw it right on out like a whore suckin’ the money out of your pocket. Or maybe suckin’ something else out of you, if you take my meaning.”
Longarm was quiet for a moment. Then he said easily, “Well, Jack, when you come right down to it, we might not have to wait long at all to settle this little question. You are sitting in there in a square rock cabin and I got a real good angle at two windows and a door. I got steel-jacketed cartridges in this carbine, and it occurs to me I might go to letting some shots off through them windows and those steel slugs might get to ricocheting around and around in that little room and one of them might pass through your body. I know it ain’t exactly precision shooting, but it’s the best I can come up with under the circumstances.”
Shaw said, “Aw, hell, Longarm, let me get these jeans off so you can pull my leg better. You ain’t got the ammunition for that kind of play. You hit the ground with a pistol on your hip and a carbine in one hand and a canteen in the other. Unless you was carrying cartridges in that canteen, you got just what you’ve got loaded.”
“You wouldn’t care to bet your life on that, would you?” Longarm waited a moment. “You know, them cartridge heads get to flying off rock and sometimes they split apart and they’ll be rock fragments flying. Might get a bit warm in there.”
Shaw laughed. “I got to give you credit, Custis. YOU still ain’t lost your touch. I bet you talked more men down in a fight than you ever gunned down. And it takes a man of your reputation—fairly earned, I might add—to do that. But there is one slight error in your plan. They is a root cellar in here and the first time you let fly, I am going to be down in it with a gun in each hand waiting for you to walk through the front door.”