“Personally I don’t see that there has t’ be any conflict, mister. Mister ... ?” .
“Delacoutt,” he said quickly. “Ames Delacoutt.” He extended a hand to shake. Longarm introduced himself,
although that wasn’t really necessary, as Delacoutt already had said.
“Anyhow, Mr. Delacoutt—”
“Ames. Please. There is no reason we should be at odds, Deputy. Please call me Ames.”
“All right, Ames, as I was sayin’, there’s no reason we have t’ sniff assholes an’ snarl. You see, there’s no danger from those Utes. I know you’ve been filled with all kinds of wild tales on the subject, but I’m here to tell you that once I get those people out of whatever confinement your local law has put them in, the first thing they’ll want t’ do is get the hell away from here. This time of year they’ll be heading down to the flat country anyhow. They got no desire to stay up here. Won’t want to come back till late fall. An’ then they won’t be wanting to bother you. Those people are like most any others, Ames. Do you leave them alone an’ treat them with decency, they’ll give you the same right back. They’ll leave you be and not be a bother to anybody.” “Your opinion is not universal, Deputy.”
“Neither is good sense, Ames. Which ain’t to say that it shouldn’t be, just that it isn’t.”
“Leaving the question of the Indians aside for the moment, Deputy, we were hoping we could, um, prevail upon you to help us solve our robbery problem.”
Longarm puffed on the cigar Ames Delacoutt had given him. It was without doubt one of the finest he had ever had the pleasure of tasting. “Was there any mail taken in the robbery, Ames?”
The man frowned. “Not that I am aware of. Is that important?”
“Does your railroad have a contract to carry mail?” Delacoutt broke eye contact with Longarm and began peering at his fingernails. *
“What is it that you’d rather not tell me, Mr. Delacoutt?” “The line doesn’t, well, it doesn’t actually have a charter yet. And no mail contract, of course.”
“I see.” And he did. No charter, therefore no insurance coverage. These boys were taking the whole sting from
that robbery. “I hate t’ be the one t’ tell you ... though I suspect you already know it... but no federal law was broken in that robbery. This is something for your county law to handle.”
“The county seat is Silver Creek.”
“So?”
“Silver Creek people are not interested in Snowshoe’s problems. The county sheriff was told about the robbery. We haven’t seen a deputy up here yet.”
“Which is why your town chief of police is out looking for something that’s clearly outside his jurisdiction.” “Exactly.”
“I was kinda wondering ’bout that.”
“But you could—”
“Ames, let me set you straight about something. I can’t march in an’ throw my weight around when I don’t have jurisdiction. This is a local crime, an’ the only way I could get into it would be if the local law asked me t’ help. I got the authority to cooperate, but only on specific request. Without that, man, my hands are tied. And, uh, judging from the look on your face, I’d say that you already been told all this. Why am I bothering?”
“We were hoping you might... make an exception? You would be handsomely compensated, I assure you.” “Bounty hunting? That ain’t what I do, Ames.”
“It wouldn’t be that at all.”
“Okay then. You want t’ bribe me to exceed my authority.”
“No!” Delacoutt yelped.
“Look, Ames, if you boys want me in on this, get your police chief t’ stand in front o’ me and ask for my help.” “If Boo Bevvy stands in front of you, Deputy, you’ll serve that writ you are carrying, and we will have to turn a flood of savages loose on our women.”
“I already told you, man—”
“And I don’t believe you. All right? Is that clear enough? The federal government mollycoddles those red savages. Everyone knows that. Lo, the poor Indian. Well excuse
me for saying so, but Lo butchers white babies and rapes white women and scalps white men, and those of us who don’t have to follow a party line on the subject would just as soon see Lo and all his relatives dead and buried. And that, sir, is the truth as I see it.”
And it was too. The way this dumb, deluded bastard saw it, anyhow. At least he was being honest in his reaction. Longarm found it difficult to fault a man for that. And he had to admit that he would’ve felt the same himself if he believed what Ames Delacoutt did. The difference between them was that Longarm happened to know better.
“I’d be glad to help out with your robbery investigation, Ames,” Longarm said. “But you know what you folks gotta do first.”
“You force a hard choice on us, sir. If we don’t give in to your demand, we face ruin. If we do, we face death. Thank you so much, Deputy.” Delacoutt sounded bitter, and no wonder given the lies that he believed.
“Look on the bright side, Ames,” Longarm suggested. “Maybe your town policeman will solve the train robbery. Then all you’ll have t’ worry about is the kind of so-called friend who’d lie to you about things like wild Indians. Who, in case you don’t know it, are just as human as you and me, mister. Which means there are good ones an’ bad ones an’ in-between ones. Just like you and me and the lying SOB who filled you full of make-believe fears. Now you think about that, Ames. Me, I’m going to bed. Somehow my pleasant evening on the town ain’t as fun right now as I was wanting. Thank you for the cigar, sir. And good night.”
It still wasn’t all that late. Late enough, though, that Longarm was going to go back to Aggie’s cabin and see if he couldn’t sneak in without waking her. For sure he didn’t want to put up with any more argument from the likes of Ames Delacoutt. Ignorance of that nature could curdle even the best whiskey inside a man’s belly.
He walked the distance to Aggie’s place in a matter of minutes, but paused outside. Whatever he might think about Mr. Delacoutt, he definitely had to applaud the man’s taste in cigars. And the one Longarm was smoking wasn’t close to being finished yet.
A cigar this good wasn’t to be put out and kept overnight either. Smoke allowed to linger inside the body of the cigar would seep into the leaf and turn stale. By morning the flavor would be no better than that of any ordinary two-center: The way Longarm saw it, it would be damn near sinful to allow that to happen.
Better, he figured, to stand outside and finish his smoke before he went in to bed. Besides, the night air was clean and crisp, the feel of it good in his lungs.
There wasn’t any porch or bench provided at the front of Aggie’s cabin, but there was a roofed overhang on one side where firewood was stored dry and close to hand. At this time of year the wood pile was small, the past winter’s use shrinking it down to little more than a cord or so, although when full it probably held closer to a dozen cords of split aspen. Longarm decided to step in there and perch on the
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stacked stove-lengths while he finished his cigar.
He wheeled and took the few steps necessary to reach the front of the covered area, then slowed to grope his way into the deep shadows.