“Does Mr. Bridges know how potentially dangerous he is?”
“There wasn’t time to discuss Gaunt or his past in detail. If I’d had my way, the train would’ve been held in Needles and Gaunt arrested there. Bridges might’ve agreed to that if the Needles sheriff hadn’t been away in Yuma and only a part-time deputy left in charge. When the station agent told him the deputy is an unreliable drunkard, and that it would take more than an hour to summon soldiers from the fort, Bridges balked. He’s more concerned about railroad timetables than he is about the capture of a fugitive.”
Sabina said, “Here he comes again. Mr. Bridges. From the look of him, I’d say he’s very much concerned about Gaunt.”
“It’s his own blasted fault.”
The conductor was a spare, sallow-faced man in his forties who wore his uniform and cap as if they were badges of honor. The brass buttons shone, as did the heavy gold watch chain and its polished elk’s-tooth fob; his tie was tightly knotted and his vest buttoned in spite of the heat. He glanced nervously at Evan Gaunt as he passed, and then mournfully and a little accusingly at Quincannon, as if he and not Gaunt was to blame for this dilemma. Bridges was not a man who dealt well with either a crisis or a disruption of his precise routine.
When he’d left the car again, Sabina said, “You and I could arrest Gaunt ourselves, John. Catch him by surprise, get the drop on him...”
“He won’t be caught by surprise — not now that he knows we’re onto him. You can be sure he has a weapon close to hand and won’t hesitate to use it. Bracing him in these surroundings would be risking harm to an innocent bystander.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?”
“Nothing, for the present, except to keep a sharp eye on him. And be ready to act when he does.”
Quincannon dried his forehead and beard with his handkerchief, wishing this was one of Southern Pacific’s luxury trains — the Golden State Limited, for instance, on the San Francisco-Chicago run. The Golden State was ventilated by a new process that renewed the air inside several times every hour, instead of having it circulated only slightly and cooled not at all by sluggish fans. It was also brightly lighted by electricity generated from the axles of moving cars, instead of murkily lit by oil lamps; and its seats and berths were more comfortable, its food better by half than the fare served on this southwestern desert run.
He said rhetorically, “Where did Gaunt disappear to after he spied me with Bridges? He gave me the slip on purpose, I’m sure of it. Whatever he’s scheming, that’s part of the game.”
“It was no more than fifteen minutes before he showed up here and took his seat.”
“Fifteen minutes is plenty of time for mischief. He has more gall than a roomful of senators.” Quincannon consulted his turnip watch; it was nearly two o’clock. “Four, is it, that we’re due in Barstow?”
“Four oh five.”
“More than two hours. Damnation!”
“Try not to fret, John. Remember your blood pressure.”
Another ten minutes crept away. Sabina sat quietly, repairing one of the grosgrain ribbons that had come undone on her traveling hat. Quincannon fidgeted, not remembering his blood pressure, barely noticing the way light caught Sabina’s dark auburn hair and made it shine like burnished copper. And still Evan Gaunt peered out at the unchanging panorama of sagebrush, greasewood, and barren, tawny hills.
No sweat or sign of worry on his face, Quincannon thought with rising irritation. A bland and unmemorable countenance it was, too, to the point where Gaunt would all but become invisible in a crowd of more noteworthy men. He was thirty-five, of average height, lean and wiry; and although he had grown a thin mustache and sideburns since their previous encounter, the facial hair did little to individualize him. His lightweight sack suit and derby hat were likewise undistinguished. A human chameleon, by God that was another reason Gaunt had avoided the law for so long.
There was no telling what had brought him to Needles, a settlement on the Colorado River, or where he was headed from there. Evan Gaunt seldom remained in one place for any length of time — he was a predator constantly on the prowl for any illegal enterprise that required his particular brand of guile. Extortion, confidence swindles, counterfeiting, bank robbery — Gaunt had done them all and more, and served not a day in prison for his transgressions. The closest he’d come was that day eight years ago when Quincannon, still affiliated with the U.S. Secret Service, had led a raid on the headquarters of a Los Angeles-based counterfeiting ring. Gaunt was one of the koniakers taken prisoner after a brief skirmish and personally questioned by Quincannon. Later, while being taken to jail by local authorities, Gaunt had wounded a deputy and made a daring escape in a stolen milk wagon — an act that had fixed the man firmly in Quincannon’s memory.
When he’d spied Gaunt on the station platform in Needles, it had been a much-needed uplift to his spirits: he’d been feeling less than pleased with his current lot. He and Sabina had spent a week in Tombstone investigating a bogus mining operation, and the case hadn’t turned out as well as they’d hoped. And after more than twenty-four hours on the Desert Limited, they were still two long days from San Francisco. Even in the company of a beautiful woman, train travel was monotonous — unless, of course, you were sequestered with her in the privacy of a drawing room. But there were no drawing rooms to be had on the Desert Limited, and even if there were, he couldn’t have had Sabina in one Not on a train, not in their Tombstone hotel, not in San Francisco — not anywhere, it seemed, past, present, or future. Unrequited desire was a maddening thing, especially when you were in such close proximity to the object of your desire. His passion for his partner was exceeded only by his passion for profitable detective work; Carpenter and Quincannon, Lovers, as an adjunct to Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, would have made him a truly happy man.
Evan Gaunt had taken his mind off that subject by offering a prize almost as inviting. Not only were there fugitive warrants on Gaunt, but two rewards totaling five thousand dollars. See to it that he was taken into custody and the reward money would belong to Carpenter and Quincannon. Simple enough task, on the surface; most of the proper things had been done in Needles and it seemed that Gaunt was indeed trapped on this clattering, swaying iron horse. And yet the man’s audacity, combined with those blasted fifteen minutes—
Quincannon tensed. Gaunt had turned away from the window, was getting slowly to his feet. He yawned, stretched, and then stepped into the aisle; in his right hand was the carpetbag he’d carried on board in Needles. Without hurry, and without so much as an eye flick in their direction, he sauntered past where Quincannon and Sabina were sitting and opened the rear door.
Close to Sabina’s ear Quincannon murmured, “I’ll shadow him. You wait here.” He adjusted the Navy Colt he wore holstered under his coat before he slipped out into the aisle.
The next car back was the second-class Pullman. Gaunt went through it, through the first-class Pullman, through the dining car and the observation lounge, into the smoker. Quincannon paused outside the smoker door; through the glass he watched Gaunt sit down, produce a cigar from his coat pocket, and snip off the end with a pair of gold cutters. Settling in here, evidently as he’d settled into the day coach. Damn the man’s coolness! He entered as Gaunt was applying a Lucifer’s flame to the cigar end. Both pretended the other didn’t exist.
In a seat halfway back Quincannon fiddled with pipe and shag-cut tobacco, listening to the steady, throbbing rhythm of steel on steel, while Gaunt smoked his cigar with obvious pleasure. The process took more than ten minutes, at the end of which time the fugitive got leisurely to this feet and started forward again. A return to his seat in the coach? No, not yet. Instead he entered the gentlemen’s lavatory and closed himself inside.