“You ain’t got no murder paper out on you?”
“Not that I know of. Let me think. No, no, I don’t reckon I killed anybody there. Maybe as a lawman. Hell, it wasn’t never my favorite part of the country. Like I say, the damn place is poor an’ it’s already overrun with all the trash and second-raters you can find.”
“And you never killed nobody there?”
“Dammit, didn’t I just say so? Hell, Custis, I don’t have to kill folks everywhere I go. I never killed nobody without it was for profit. What you think I am, some kind of murderin’ fool like that idiot they call Billy the Kid? I notice he stays around New Mexico. That ought to tell you what I think of the place.” Longarm said slowly, “I got a thought here. It ain’t the best you want to do, but it might be the best you can do.”
“What is it? Hell, I’m open to nearly anything right now.”
Longarm hesitated a moment, trying to figure how Jack Shaw would consider the idea. If he was really afraid of the Arizona Rangers—which Longarm thought he had every right to be—then he would have to look favorably at the proposition. Maybe not at first, but in the end he’d have to see it as his best alternative. Longarm wanted him to take it right away because he was already feeling the effects of the sun. He knew his body was dehydrating, and he knew he’d lost too much salt out of his system through sweating. He wasn’t certain how long he could hold out. In effect he was going on his sixth day of driving his body to its limit. Even as blessed as he was with a first-rate physical constitution, there was a limit to what he could stand.
impatiently Shaw said, “Well, dammit, Longarm, you got a idea or not?
Speak up, man, don’t be bashful.”
“All right,” Longarm said. “I’ll tell you what I’m willing to do. If you will surrender right now. I mean pretty quick. I’m willing to take you into custody and turn you over to territorial law in New Mexico. I don’t figure the border is more than forty or fifty miles from here. If I’ve got it figured right, we ought to have a dead straight shot at Lordsburg, which is just inside the border.” Shaw said, disappointment in his voice, “Hell, that ain’t no idea.
That’s robbing Peter to pay Paul. Why would I care if you turned me in here or New Mexico?”
Longarm said, “That’s why I was asking you what kind of paper they had on you in New Mexico Territory. They’ll string you up for sure here. Right away if them Arizona Rangers catch you. And for shore within thirty days even if I get you to federal or territorial law. They ain’t gonna like what happened at that train, Jack. I surrender you in New Mexico, you ain’t wanted for no hanging offense. You’ll go to prison. I ain’t going to try and convince you that will be no picnic, because I would imagine you’ve seen such places when you were a lawman. But at least you’ll be alive. And you might escape. It’s been done.”
Shaw was silent for a moment. Finally he said, “Aw, hell, Longarm, it ain’t no good. I see the point and it is a good one. Yeah, I’d rather a long prison sentence than a short rope. But if you turn me in in New Mexico, the governor of Arizona will write to the governor of New Mexico and back I’ll go. They got a name for that. I can’t call it to mind.”
“Extradition.”
“Yeah, extradition. I can’t see no advantage to that.”
“I’ll find a pluperfect ambitious sheriff in New Mexico. He’ll fight like a wildcat to keep you, Jack. Hell, you’re big political medicine. You got a big name. You got the kind of name they put it in the paper folks will recognize it.”
Shaw got a pleased tone in his voice. “You really reckon?”
“Hell, I know so. Listen, Jack, more than one political career has been built on catching a lot smaller fish than you. I can’t see New Mexico letting you go back to Arizona without a fight. And that will take time, time that you are alive, time that you might can figure out a way to make a break, escape. Hell, Jack, anything is better than waiting here for them Rangers to arrive. Crazy as they are. You know what kind of mood they will be in after four or five days of hunting through them crags and gullies for the sign I left. Hell, they might hang me.” Shaw said slowly, “Weeell, maybe you got a point there, Longarm. Maybe it would be better. Hell, maybe I could escape from you before you delivered me in Lordsburg.”
Longarm said dryly, “I wouldn’t count on that, Jack. I have gone to considerable trouble over you. Wouldn’t look too good on my report.”
“What’s in this for you, Custis?”
Longarm laughed. “That’s easy. Get in out of this damn sun. Get a good drink of water. Get a meal. Drink some whiskey.”
“That horse startin’ to smell?”
“Not yet, but I ain’t kidding myself that he won’t. But I think them Arizona Rangers will be here before then. You better make up your mind, Jack.”
Longarm could hear Shaw thinking. Finally the bandit said, “I stay here and the Arizona Rangers will come. Longarm, will you give me your word of honor that they are coming?”
“Why, hell, no, I won’t. I can’t give you my word of honor on what another man will do. I will give it to you that wires were sent to them and that I left enough sign on the trail that a blind man could damn near follow it, much less that bunch who knows this country a hell of a lot better than you or me.”
“Your word of honor on that?”
“Yes, dammit, I just said so.”
“Damn!” Shaw said. Longarm could hear him sigh. “I know what a power you set by your word. I reckon that means they will be coming. The other way is to let you take me to New Mexico. That means a prison where most folks would rather be dead. There is that other choice, though.”
“Trying to make a break out the back? Right under my nose? Hell, Jack, you might as well shoot yourself and save me the cartridges.”
Shaw said thoughtfully, “I don’t know. You been curing out in that sun for quite some time. You right shore your hand will still point and your eye follow? I got to figure you are pretty well wore down.”
Longarm laughed. “You are talking like a man with a paper asshole, Jack. Hell, at the worst it would be a shot of thirty to fifty yards with a good rifle. I ain’t going to miss at that distance.”
“I recollect your rifle was fouled not that long ago.”
Longarm thumbed back the hammer of his rifle and fired a shot into the side of the cabin. Splinters flew from the rock face and the shot boomed loud in the dry, still air. When the echoes had died, Longarm said, “That sound like it’s fouled, Jack?” He levered another shell into the chamber, listening with his ear close to his rifle for the sound of any grit.
Shaw said, “Naw, I reckon yore rifle works. Course I ain’t so sure about you. You hit the side of the cabin. That don’t tell me much.”
“You got a empty whiskey bottle in there?”
“Oh, I reckon I could find one. That or a can of tomatoes.”
“Well, throw one of them out far enough so I can see it from where I’m at.”
A moment passed, and then a clear, empty bottle came flying out of the cabin and landed ten yards short of the ditch, bouncing and rolling.
Longarm had it in his sights before it had stopped moving. His shot exploded the bottle into a thousand pieces. He said, “You satisfied, Jack?”
But just as he was about to lever a shell into the chamber of his rifle he saw, out of the corner of his eye, a rifle come around the back end of the house. He whirled and dropped flat behind his horse as Shaw’s rifle boomed and a shot sailed over his head. Without aiming he fired with his rifle resting on the hindquarter of the horse. The slug chipped rock at the exact spot the other rifle had just disappeared from.
It made Longarm angry. He said, “All right, dammit, Shaw. We were negotiating. If that is the way you want to play it, I’m content to let the Rangers have you. And to hell with you!”
“Hell, Longarm, what did you expect? I reckon if you was in this spot I’m in, you’d try anything you could.”