He let himself into his suite. The first room had a dilapidated-looking velveteen settee and a couple of ordinary armchairs around a table. It wasn’t much of a room. The only good feature about it was that it had a big chandelier over the table that had several lanterns. If a man wanted to have a poker game in private, he would have plenty of light to see his cards by.
He walked on into the bedroom. It was large enough, with a bureau and a washbasin and towels on a long table. The bed was of a fair size. He went over and felt it. It was a little lumpy but it wasn’t too soft, so he figured that it would do. There was a chiffonnier to hang some clothes in, and in the corner was an ample zinc bathtub. It appeared that he could shave and have a bath in his room without bothering with the communal bathroom in the hall. He put his saddlebags down on the bed and set his valise on the floor. Then he took out a bottle of whiskey from the saddlebags and took a pull straight from the bottle, even though there was a glass handy on the nightstand just at the head of the bed.
He took out a cheroot and lit it and sat there thinking. He supposed that the first order of business was to go out to the fort, see the commander, and get a line on the killings. But just as he was about to take another pull of whiskey, there was a knock at the door and he yelled, “Come in!”
The outer door opened and a boy of about sixteen came through, carrying his .44-caliber Model 73 Winchester carbine that had been in his saddle boot.
The young man said, “Didn’t figure you wanted this left out in the stable, mister.”
Longarm nodded. “I expected you to bring that in, sonny. I saw you outside and I figured that you were as smart as paint. I wanted to see if I could depend on you. Here’s another fifty cents for your trouble. You’re supposed to get a dollar from the desk clerk. Did you?”
The young man looked doubtful, as if he was unsure of what he should answer. Longarm said, “Cheated you, did he? What did he give you, a quarter?”
The young man grinned sheepishly and looked down. “Well, I don’t like to say.”
Longarm added another half-dollar to what he was handing the young man. He said, “I’m going to need someone I can trust around here to run errands and help me on different matters. Would you be available for that job?”
The young man’s face brightened up. “Yes, sir. I’m your man. My name is Todd.”
“Now, a man that works for me has got to know how to keep things under his hat. Are you good at that?”
The young man nodded. “Yes, sir. Yes, sir.”
“All right, Todd. The first thing that I want you to do is to get me a line on all the sports in town. I’m a man who is willing to get into a card game if the stakes are right, might even run a horse race, might even trade a horse. Might even buy some cattle if the price is right. Do you follow me about buying those cattle, Todd?”
“Yes, sir. I figure I do.”
“Fact, I might even buy a load of horses if the price is right. Do you understand me about that, Todd?”
“Well, yes, sir, but I gotta tell you, sir, that there ain’t many of them kind of horses comes through here.”
“What kind of horses did you think I meant, Todd?”
“Well, sir, I kind of thought that you might have meant horses that have gotten lost and cattle also.”
Longarm said, “You’re a smart paint, Todd. Now you run along and keep your eyes and ears open. You might put the word around to the right places that I am also a man who likes to have a good time. Do you understand me, Todd?”
“Yes, sir!” Todd said. Then he turned and was gone.
Longarm watched him close the door and then smiled to himself. He thought he could begin to enjoy this act, that is, as long as the money held out. If it didn’t, he’d have to deal with the tight-fisted Billy Vail. Billy’s idea of acting like a sport meant throwing around a dollar and a half. It was Longarm’s considered opinion that Billy Vail ought to be the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America, as tight as he was. Longarm picked up his carbine and levered it slowly to see that a shell was still in its chamber. He liked to make sure that all of his weapons were loaded, just as he liked to make sure that he never carried a dull knife.
A man had once told him early in life that it didn’t cost any more to carry a sharp knife and a loaded gun. He’d added, however, that sometimes it did cost more to have a pretty woman than to have an ugly one. On that thought, Longarm had another drink and went over to look out the window at the main street of San Angelo. It didn’t take him long to see that there wasn’t much to see.
He moved back to the bed and unbuckled his gunbelt. He was tired from his journey and he wanted to take a rest before looking the town over. He unbuckled the big concave silver buckle of his gunbelt carefully because inside the buckle, held by a spring, was his hideout gun, a .38-caliber two-shot derringer. He didn’t need it very often, but when he did, he needed it mighty bad.
He took his boots off, loosened his belt, lay down on the bed, and shut his eyes. He couldn’t sleep, but he could rest for a half an hour and then go out to the fort, where he hoped to see the commander. He figured that the sooner he got to the nub of the business, the sooner he would get it over with.
The commander of the fort was a Captain John Montrose. He was a man of approximately Longarm’s age, though he was tall and thin where Longarm was muscular. His face was weathered, as were his clothes. It was obvious that this wasn’t his first tour of duty at a frontier fort.
Longarm managed to get into see the captain by claiming to have a bill for forage against the army that he wanted forwarded through proper channels. Once he had managed to see Captain Montrose alone, he immediately dropped the ruse, showed the captain his badge and papers, and told him the purpose of his visit.
Captain Montrose leaned back in his chair in his sparsely furnished office and said, “Well, Marshal, I have to admit that I am very glad to see you. Frankly, the entire matter is a puzzle to me. This is my fourth tour of duty at these so-called Indian forts, and nothing like this has ever happened before.”
Longarm said, “Captain, I just got in town this afternoon. I’ve just barely had a drink and a rest. You will at least give me until supper to solve this thing, won’t you?”
The captain gave him a rueful smile. “I guess when you have been living with something like this as long as we have, you are anxious for it to be over with.”
“I’ve been told that this business started about two months ago. Is that when the first killing occurred?”
Captain Montrose nodded. “That’s approximately right.”
“When did the local townspeople begin to make it evident that they didn’t want you around?”
The captain scratched his thinning hair. “Well, that part is a puzzle to me too. I don’t really know of any concerted effort or wish to have us leave. It just seems to crop up here and there. I’ve been told that letters have been written to the congressman and the governor, but I’ve never seen any of them. I’ve been told that the mayor has protested our being here, but I have asked him point-blank and he says he has never made any such protest. Frankly, I am puzzled by the entire affair. I am told that the entire town wants this fort closed, and yet I can’t find a single soul that will tell me that they want us gone. Asked directly, they invariably say, ‘Why would we want you to leave?’ And since we provide a flow of money in the form of our payroll and the amount of supplies that we buy, I couldn’t imagine why the town would want us gone. I admit myself that I can’t see the necessity of this fort. The only Indians that I know of around here work on cattle ranches and are very unlikely to go on a warpath anytime soon.”