Longarm took a bite of the stew, which was delicious, and chewed slowly for a moment. After he swallowed, he said, “Mr. Hawkins, I think you’ve got it wrong. I’m not the one applying the match here. Myers and the various Barretts are the ones with the torch. I’m standing here with a water bucket, in case nobody’s noticed.”
Mr. Hawkins chuckled again. “Well, what you might be overlooking, Marshal, is that there wasn’t no need for water until you got here, because there wasn’t no fire. So I’ve got to figure that you’re the one with the match.”
Longarm said, “I’m not so sure about that, Mr. Hawkins, because I haven’t talked to any of the settlers. They might have a different view of the matter.”
Sims suddenly looked up from his plate and said in a high, stuttering voice, “M-M-Marshal, I ain’t one to be interfering in other folk’s business but m-m-my b-b-boss over at the dry goods store is a-cussin’ your name p-p-pretty hard.”
Longarm gave the man a mild look. He said, “And why would that be, Mr. Sims?”
Sims had gotten control of his stammer. He said, “He says you’re ruining business in this town, and about another week of your kind of law and everybody is going to be broke.”
Hawkins laughed out loud. Longarm gave him a long, slow look, but it didn’t stop the chuckle coming from the man. Longarm said, “Mr. Sims, tell your boss I regret that matters are coming out the way they are, but I’m having to use stern measures. This situation didn’t get this way overnight. I’ve come down and I found myself a town without any law and without any respect for the law, so it has become my lot to teach it in a hurry. Carry that message back to your boss.”
Hawkins wiped his mouth with one of the cloth napkins that Mrs. Thompson had provided. He said, “Marshal, all this is well and good. I’m a businessman, myself, and I appreciate business and the power of it, but I’m damned if I see what you hope to accomplish by cutting off those two families and their hired help from this town. You’re not going to hurt them.”
“You may have a point, Mr. Hawkins.” Longarm nodded slowly. “But it’s about the only thing I can think to do. The headquarters of those two ranches are miles apart. The men I want to see are miles apart, and I can’t get them together. Now, perhaps I’m not creating quite as much a hardship on them as I am on the town, but eventually, I will get their attention. When their men can’t come in and buy whiskey and they can’t buy the supplies they need for their kitchens and their womenfolk can’t come in and buy dresses and whatnot and they can’t come in and buy a new shirt, maybe then it will irritate them enough to get their attention. Maybe they’ll come in and try and deal with me. Like I say, it’s not the best idea I’ve ever had, and it may not be the worst, but right now, it’s the only idea I’ve got. If I ride out to either one of these ranches, if I go to the Myerses or the Barretts, then I put the law on a rung below them. I came in here and declared, a little quick maybe, what I was going to do and now I have to back that up. Does that answer your questions?”
Hawkins shrugged. He said, “You’re robbing this train and it’s your business, Marshal, not mine. Like I say, I’m going to be on that stage getting out of here tomorrow morning. I’ve got a pocketful of orders, and I’ll just be happy to be out of this country before it blows up.”
Longarm said, “You understand, it’s also a way to make these settlers come in. When word gets to them that I’m keeping the Myerses and the Barretts out, then they’ll feel free to come into town themselves. I’ve heard it said and I’ve read it in the reports that some of them have been afraid to come into town because of the rowdies that the Myerses and the Barretts hired that rough up their men and insult their women and turn over their wagons and whatnot. Of course, I’m planning on seeing those people this afternoon.”
Hawkins said, “Well, I can tell you the one that you’d mainly want to see. That would be Tom Hunter. He’s the one that stuck in the craw of the Barretts more than anyone else, and he’s the one that would be the last to be run off his ground.”
“I intend to go see this Mr. Hunter. He was in the report that was given to me. Do you happen to know where he lives?”
Hawkins nodded. “Right after we finish eating, I’m going to saddle up my horse and ride out close to where Tom Hunter lives. There’s a sodbuster out there that needs a set of harnesses for his mules. I’m ashamed to say it, but I also deal in harness and other kinds of rigs, not just saddles, though I personally prefer to sell a man a good saddle. So, if you’re willing, you and I can ride along together within a half mile of Tom Hunter’s place and I can point you in that direction.”
Longarm nodded. “You got a horse and yet you’re going to be taking a stage in the morning?”
“I’ve got a considerable number of samples, Marshal, so I carry them on the stage and tie my horse on behind.”
“Makes sense. There is one thing that I’m mighty curious about. I understood Mrs. Thompson had two daughters. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them.”
Hawkins smiled thinly. “I doubt that you will. I saw her early this morning getting them down to the stage stop. I understand that she’s sending them to kinfolk in Austin until you’re gone.”
“Until I’m gone?” Longarm looked startled.
Hawkins nodded again. “Yep. You don’t reckon that you’re the lightning rod that’s attracting the lightning? The lady is showing good sense. I figure there’s going to be bullets flying around your head, and I’d just as soon not be standing next to you. I reckon she feels the same for her daughters.”
Longarm flung his fork on his plate. He said, “Damn! Talk about feeling unwanted. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever been treated like this in my whole career, even by the men I was trying to hang.”
Hawkins chuckled. He said, “Now you know how it feels to be a snake oil drummer. If you ain’t got what they want or if what you’re selling ain’t what they want, it don’t take very long to get unpopular. And it didn’t take you very long to get unpopular.”
Longarm stood up and said, “I’m going upstairs and taking a drink of my good whiskey. Knock on my door when you’re ready to go.”
Hawkins nodded. “I’m going to wait for dessert. Then I’ll be ready to go.”
Longarm raised his hand in a motion to both Sims and Hawkins and then walked out of the dining room and took the stairs up to his room in the back of the house. He let himself in and closed the door behind him. It was a spacious room with a bed on each side. There was a big window at the back, and he walked over to it and stood looking at the countryside that fell away from the town. It was beautiful country, all right. Rolling plains, grassy and gentle, except for the hillocks and hummocks and little crags and buttes that gave the countryside its name. It was rocky ground, but it was amazingly fertile. Cattle and horses both did well on the grass it grew. He expected that it was the profusion of water that made the country so valuable. It was a shame, he thought, that with plenty of it for all, there had to be such a squabble over what there was, that too few wanted too much.
But then, Hawkins had commented on that very matter. At breakfast that morning, he had advised Longarm that he was overlooking the main cause of the trouble. He had said, “Greed, Marshal. Just plain, old, simple greed. It has been in man since time immemorial, and you ain’t going to get it out this trip or a thousand trips or a million trips or even a million times around the world. The Barretts are greedy and the Myerses are greedy and most of the rest of them are greedy, too. You’re feeling sorry for those homesteaders, but its money to marbles that they’d be acting the same if the situation were vice versa.”