She said, “You just think you’re going to have your lustful way with me, don’t you, Mister Deputy Marshal Custis Long? I know how you think and that’s the reason you’re going to make me stay over, now isn’t it?”
He grinned at her. “I’ll make you a deal, Lily Gail. I’ll leave you alone if you’ll leave me alone. Now, how’s that?”
“Ha! You don’t mean that!”
“Try me.”
“You sound like you don’t like me anymore.”
“Like you? Lily Gail, you’re about as likable as rotgut whiskey. Drink that, and you don’t realize the damage you’re doing to yourself until it’s too late.”
“I guess that’s not supposed to be a compliment, is it?”
“Lily Gail, just study on it. Now, get up and get dressed. I’ve got to do some hard thinking tonight and I’ve got to go and find a man.”
“And what am I supposed to be doing while you’re gadding about the town?”
“Well, if you want me to do what you’ve been sent to get me to do, then you’ll stay right here in this room. I’d be happy if you walked on out and caught the train and I never saw you again. I’m willing to maybe go along with this idea that the Gallaghers have thought up, but I’m not in love with it. You make up your mind what you’re going to do.”
“Well, all right, if you’re going to be like that about it, but you won’t be out too late, will you?”
Longarm said, “We’ll see.”
Chapter 3
Longarm and Fisher Lee sat at a table in a corner of a low-ceilinged smoky saloon not far from Longarm’s hotel. The saloon could have been one of fifty in the town, but for some reason it was a gathering place for real high-money poker players. Fisher Lee was there almost every night. Now, they sat talking over a couple of drinks. Longarm was drinking good Spanish brandy, but Fisher, because he would be playing most of the night, was contenting himself with a beer.
Fisher Lee was a man of about forty. He was tall and lean and seemed slow of movement and slow of reaction. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Longarm considered him as fine a man with a gun as he’d ever served with. Fisher’s even temper and ready laugh had led more than one fool into making a mistake about him, either in a card game or a gunfight.
Longarm said, “So, what do you think, Fish? How does it look to you?” He had just finished telling his friend the details of the proposition Lily Gail had brought him. Fisher put back his head and laughed good-humoredly. “What do I think, Longarm? I believe it’s a trap or else somebody has gotten word to them that you’ve lost your mind.”
Longarm nodded. “That’s what’s got me so puzzled about the whole damn thing. Do they really think I’m such a damn fool that I would ride out in the bald-ass prairie and be a target for those damn Gallaghers? I’ve killed one, but I’d like another, maybe two more.”
Fisher Lee, who knew as much about the Gallaghers as anyone, although his law work had never brought him into contact with them, nodded. “Yeah, I heard about you blowing one of them out of the county with a stick of dynamite. It’s too bad the whole damn bunch of them weren’t with him.”
Longarm said, “Well, what the hell do you suppose they are up to?”
Fisher shook his head. “I don’t know. I can’t figure it out. There is this, though, Longarm. You do have a certain reputation.” Fisher cut his eyes sideways at the deputy marshal. “You may not be aware of it, but there are some folks who believe you’re damn fool enough to try anything.”
Longarm said, “Bullshit. Anyone that knows me knows that’s not the case. I didn’t get to stay alive this long by being a damn fool.”
Fisher nodded. “I know that and you know that. I know that you won’t walk through a door without knowing what is on the other side and who is backing you up. But lots of folks see you do things that they think are taking chances, though in fact you’ve planned out every detail and you ain’t really taking a chance. The other fellow is taking the chance but he doesn’t know it. The Gallaghers figure that you want a piece of their ass so bad that you’d risk a dumb play like that. That you would take that kind of a chance, that you’d be so damned cocky that you would walk out there and try to tie their hands behind their backs.”
Longarm took a sip of his drink. “Well, I never thought folks had that opinion of me. Is it widespread?”
Fisher said, “Well, I guess you’d say it was the folks kind of on the fringe of the action that think that way. Them that know you a little better have got a pretty good line on what you will and won’t do.”
Longarm got out his watch and looked at it. It was going on nearly ten o’clock. He knew that Fisher’s game would be starting soon, and he wanted to get back to the hotel and check on Lily Gail, although at that point he wasn’t too sure if he wouldn’t have been as happy to see her disappear.
Fisher said, grinning at Longarm, “I kind of like the bait they sent in to try and reel you in. Sounds like a pretty tasty morsel to me.”
Longarm grimaced. “That woman is more dangerous than a bear in a closet. Sometimes you’d think she’s nearly sane, and then she’ll think or do something that will convince you that she ain’t got a lick of sense.”
Fisher gave him a bemused look. “Ya’ll talk a lot, do ya?”
Longarm smiled slightly. “She’s one of the best at that.”
“Talking?”
“You know what I mean, Fish. Listen …” He paused. “Would you be available to help me on this matter if I can ever sit down and think of some kind of a plan?”
Fisher sat back in his chair and said slowly, “I’d like to have a look at your hand before I make a decision on a question like that, Longarm. We’ve been friends for a long time and I’d like to see us continue being friends for a long time, but that might turn out to be difficult if one of us is dead.”
Longarm said, “I’m not planning on that direction, but I’ll tell you, Fish, a clean shot at those Gallaghers is just damn near more than I can resist. I’ve been trying to bring them bastards to book for five, six, hell, maybe even seven years, and all I’ve been able to do is kill ten or twelve of their hired hands and one of the brothers. Sonofabitch, would I like to get my hands on that bunch.”
Fisher said, “That kind of talk makes me nervous, Longarm. You’re getting the bit in your teeth now. You’re starting to talk like a runaway.”
“Yeah, that sort of does sound like dumb talk, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, Fish, I won’t get you off in a storm. I just need to know if I can count on you for some light work if I can get a handle on this situation.”
Fisher looked at his beer for a moment and then drank off half of it. “Well, if the odds are no worse than five to two, then yeah, I reckon you could count me in, but try and narrow it down if you can.”
“I’ve got to find out what this is all about first, but I don’t even know how to go about doing that.”
Fisher gave Longarm a shrewd look. “It’s my belief that wherever that Miss Lily Gail came from is where your Gallagher brothers are right now. I don’t think they’re camped out on the Cimarron Strip. They don’t strike me as the kind to lead the harsh life, not with the kind of money they have. I reckon that wherever she came from, that’s where they are sitting, waiting for the answer. Now, you’re supposed to meet them just over the line in Oklahoma Territory. Well, they can be there in a day’s ride if they came from Raton. In fact, they can be there before you can be there from here.”