"I don't know," Longarm said, listening to the shrieking wind. "You heard what the man said."
Martha pressed close. "Do you think he could have been mistaken?"
Longarm's head was throbbing and he was so cold and drained that he had begun to shiver despite the fact that the interior of the coach was packed with humanity and the temperature was slightly above freezing.
"Your coat is too light," Martha said. "You must use mine."
"I couldn't fit into it even if I wanted to, which I don't," Longarm said, teeth chattering like dice in a cup.
Martha touched Longarm's face; then her hand dropped to unbutton his light coat. She pushed him down and unbuttoned her own coat, then pulled it close around them. Longarm felt the instant warmth of her body. He wrapped his arms around her and held the woman tight.
"You were magnificent today," Martha breathed into his ear. "If you hadn't demanded that the able-bodied in this coach join us, we couldn't possibly have saved so many lives."
"You were pretty great yourself," he replied. "I owe you an apology for the mean-spirited things I was thinking about you before."
"Because of that prisoner?"
"Yes. Eli Wheat really is a vicious murderer."
"I know that now. I guess I even knew it then. I should never have interfered. I don't even know what possessed me to-"
"Dear repentant woman," Longarm said interrupting, "has anyone ever said that you talk a lot?"
"It's been mentioned," Martha said with a smile. "I get that from my father. He was an attorney, and I plan to also practice law when we reach Cheyenne. It's a new challenge for me, but I know the law far better than most men who hang out their shingle."
"I've never seen a woman lawyer before, but I'm sure that you'll do fine," Longarm said. "There's probably plenty of women that would rather deal with another woman."
"There's even more men that would rather deal with a woman," she told him.
Longarm was sure that was true. Martha Noble was very attractive, and he'd rather deal with her anytime than another man.
"Custis? That is your name, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Well, Custis, I still say that you were acting beyond your authority when you almost throttled that prisoner."
"I wish now that I had. But if I manage to recapture Eli Wheat, you can defend him in court if you choose."
When the woman offered no comment, Longarm chuckled. "So, I'm holding a pretty attorney in a very compromising position. Martha, are you going to sue me for damages if I try to steal a kiss?"
"You can kiss me all you want," she whispered. "I've never been kissed by a hero before. So kiss me."
Longarm did kiss Miss Noble. He kissed her until his teeth no longer chattered and his passion momentarily swept away the nightmare of the train wreck. And then, he kissed her a little more.
"I wish we were somewhere else," he confessed, squeezing her. "Somewhere nice and warm in Cheyenne."
"What do you think happened?"
"You mean to the train, or to my prisoner?"
"Both."
Longarm closed his eyes. "I thought, just for an instant before we went over the mountainside, that I heard an explosion."
"You mean like dynamite?"
"Exactly. It could have been an avalanche or a boulder that broke loose up above and came crashing down to derail the entire train, but I doubt it. We won't know for sure until help arrives and this blizzard passes."
"Do you believe that it might have had something to do with your prisoner?"
"Maybe."
"But wouldn't the risk of killing him have been too great?"
"Eli had everything to gain and nothing to lose," Longarm said. "If you'll remember, I told you that he belonged to a gang of cutthroats that robbed stagecoaches and trains. They've derailed the Union Pacific before with dynamite. Sometimes pitching it under the moving train, sometimes just blowing up track in front of the locomotive."
Martha Noble choked with rage. "So, in order to give one ruthless and convicted murderer a slim chance to escape, this gang was willing to sacrifice dozens of innocent passengers and train employees."
"That's the size of it. If it was the same gang that Eli belonged to, they will have broken into the mail car and dynamited the safe in order to steal whatever cash and valuables it might have contained."
"And executed any guards that might have survived," Martha said bitterly.
"Of course."
"What a fool I was to upbraid you earlier today!"
"Don't let it bother you for a minute," Longarm told the young attorney. "Just... well, just chalk this UP to experience. Eli has that hangdog look that makes everyone think he's a victim rather than the victimizer. I think that's why the man is so dangerous."
Martha was silent a long time. "I hope to God that there are other train coaches like this that people have managed to reach. That one destroyed coach we passed looked like a pile of chopped firewood. I can't imagine what-"
"Don't think about it," Longarm said. "That doesn't help. We have to just worry about saving ourselves now. We have to hope that, when this train didn't arrive in Cheyenne, help was dispatched right away."
"In a storm like this?" Martha looked up at him in the dim glow of the firelight. "I doubt that they would send anyone out in this weather. Would you?"
"No," Longarm admitted. "I'd wait until the worst of this storm passed."
Martha thought about that for a few minutes before she said, "If some of these people don't get to a doctor soon, they'll die."
Longarm knew that. He also knew that it was pointless to worry about what was beyond their control. Each and every passenger had been attended to as well as possible given the extreme deprivations they were all trying to endure and survive.
"Wyoming storms this early in the year often pass quickly," Longarm said. "I think those among us that survive until morning will crawl out into sunlight."
"I want to believe that," Martha whispered as she held Longarm and her body heat drove away his chills.
When Longarm awoke, he knew that his greatest wish had been granted. The wind had stopped and, looking outside through a window that was still intact, he could see the morning sun melting the snow. Longarm kissed Martha awake, and then he joined those who were able to crawl out into the brilliant sunlight. For a few moments, they were all a little dazed and confused, like wild animals emerging from hibernation.
The train was segmented like a broken logger's chain, pieces of it scattered all up and down the mountainside. The locomotive had tumbled hundreds of feet farther down into the gorge, and lay with its huge driving wheels reaching for the sky. The coal car was nearby. Another coach now rested several hundred yards above both and was wrapped around an immense pine tree.
It took only a few minutes for Longarm to realize that there were no other survivors from the train. Every coach except two had been ripped apart, with bodies and baggage now buried under a thick blanket of glistening snowfall.
"Where are you going?" Martha asked.
"To the mail car, or what's left of it."
Martha followed Longarm about fifty yards up the slope. The mail car was a pile of kindling, and it took Longarm several minutes to dig his way through the rubble in order to reach what had been a large safe. The safe would have survived the destruction had it not been dynamited. Now its massive door hung from only one hinge. The safe itself had been emptied. Even the mail sacks had been rifled and their contents scattered everywhere.
"The safe was dynamited," Longarm announced when he crawled back out and rejoined Martha.
She stared at him, struck by the implications of his words. "Then this whole thing was a deliberate act by Eli Wheat's gang."
"It could have been another bunch. Eli's friends don't have a corner on train robberies. Still, I think that they probably wanted to see if they could free one of their own and at the same time make a good haul."
"So what now?"
Longarm looked up at the sky, and then removed and studied his pocket watch. "It's only eight-fifteen," he said, repocketing the Ingersoll. "My guess is that a rescue party ought to be here before nine o'clock."