They brought the two men out again that night about eight o’clock, well after supper. Neither had been given food or drink. By now, Barrett knew what that meant. Jake Myers was just starting to find out, and he complained loud and hard about the treatment. All he received in return was silence.
Longarm said, “You boys ready to sign yet?”
Barrett said, “Hell, no. I ain’t ready to put no rope around my neck.”
“The same goes for me,” said Myers.
Longarm nodded. He said, “Well, welcome back to the Hardship Hotel. Show them back to their room, boys.”
They stood watch again that night. With five of them, they were two beds short, so Rufus made himself a pallet on the cold stone floor and did the best he could. His daddy said it wouldn’t bother him. He said, “That boy can sleep standing up if there’s any work around.”
Longarm caught the watch just before dawn. He was making the coffee when the others began to stir. Tom Hunter came in to help. He said, “I’m getting worried. There’ll be scouting parties out looking for both of them by now. I would think that one ranch has talked to the other ranch, and they’ve found out that both of the big shots are missing. I think we can expect some trouble real soon.”
Longarm said, “I hope so. It’s been pretty dull around here.”
Tom Hunter looked at Longarm. He said, “You actually like it when the guns are going off?”
Longarm shook his head. He said, “No, but at least I know that some progress is being made in one direction or an other.”
They let the cabin fill with the smell of frying meat and eggs and biscuits before they brought the two prisoners back in. Both of them were all eyes for the kitchen. Both of them looked wan and dried. Jake Myers, especially, looked drawn out and tired. Longarm put the same question to each of them. The answer was the same.
This time, Longarm put his boots up on a handy chair and folded his hands up behind his neck. He said, “Gentlemen, I don’t think you fully understand your options. Now, if you do this like I’ve laid it out for you, you’re going to be able to walk out of here free. That is, so long as you keep your part about the money. I’ll have the confessions, and I’ll execute them when and if you get out of line again. But for the time being, you are going to be as free as a bird.”
Barrett looked at Myers and the older man looked back. Jake Myers said, “I don’t trust you, Marshal, any further than I can throw a wagon load of manure. If we sign those confessions, then you’re going to drag us off to jail.”
Longarm brought his feet to the floor with a thump. He said, “Jake, you don’t know it, but I can drag you off to jail and probably have you in prison inside of three months and maybe get you hung. In fact, I might could just take you outside right now and hang you. I’m offering you a chance. You don’t seem to understand that.”
Myers said, “Well, I ain’t signing no document.”
Longarm nodded his head and made a motion, and once again, the complaining prisoners were taken back to their room without food or water. Hawkins said, “They’re a blamed sight harder and more stubborn than I thought they’d be. Hell, Barrett ain’t had but one meal in about three days. Of course, Jake Myers could live off his fat for some time. But I would imagine that things are beginning to pinch both of them a little. Do you mean what you say about them being free if they sign that document?”
“Yeah, I mean it. As I’ve tried to explain it, I’m just trying to bring some peace to this place. Get things working again.”
It was in the afternoon, about three o’clock, that Rufus spotted scouts roaming through the countryside. He called Longarm over to one of the windows and the marshal looked out. He could see a few riders working the ground between the eastern side and back toward town. They were a good two or three miles from the cabin, but at any time, one or more could present themselves.
At about four o’clock, Longarm had the two men brought back out for what he told them would be the last question of the day. He said, “This is about the last time I’m going to ask you. We’re going to start fixing supper pretty soon, and we’re either going to put your names in the pot now, or they’re not going in at all. The next time you’re going to be asked this question, it’s going to be tomorrow morning, after breakfast, and after another night without any water or any food. So, I’m going to ask you one more time what you’re willing to do. Are you willing to sign these confessions?”
Before they could answer, young Rufus yelled from a front window, “Marshal! Marshal! There’s a big body of men headed straight this way.”
Longarm stood up, but even as he did, Archie Barrett made a bolt for the door. Longarm would have never thought he could have moved so fast as he did after being starved down for several days and deprived of water. He was out the door before anyone could touch him.
Robert Goodman was moving even faster. He was out the door right behind Barrett and within three steps had wrestled him to the ground. By the time Longarm reached the door, Goodman was jerking the struggling rancher back toward the rock house. But the biggest sight was a party of at least two dozen men coming up the slope toward the cabin. They were only some three hundred yards away.
Longarm said quickly, “Throw them back into the room. Get your rifles and get to the windows and let’s start pouring some fire into that bunch before they scatter.”
Chapter 10
At first, they could bring only two rifles to bear on the large, advancing party: Longarm’s and that of young Rufus. Hawkins was firing, too; but as he freely admitted, he would have been better off chucking rocks. Mr. Goodman and Tom Hunter were meanwhile occupied trying to get the struggling prisoners back into their room of confinement. They had been delayed because Jake Myers had tried to escape, as Barrett had, making a run for freedom through the front.
Longarm, firing fast, was able to hit at least three men or their horses, and he could tell that Rufus’s fire was also doing damage. They had forced the men to split up and disperse into a long line. Most of them had quit their horses and were advancing on foot, which made them harder to hit. By the time Robert Goodman and Tom Hunter had taken their positions, Longarm could tell they were in trouble because the long line of gunmen were going to flank the cabin on both sides, and they didn’t have enough firepower to defend from each side.
For a moment or two, he had been concentrating on each end of the line, forcing those that would approach the cabin from the ends to fall back. He had estimated that they had dropped six or seven of the two dozen attackers, but there were still too many of them left to handle. He didn’t know if they were Myers’s men or Barrett’s men or a mixture of both. Neither did Tom Hunter or either of the Goodmans.
Robert Goodman said, “It’s too far, Marshal. I can’t pick out the faces. They’re starting to get to cover behind those little rocky ledges down there. They’re going to make this place get kind of warm.”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than bullets began to come in through the windows and ricochet off the stone walls. Longarm was firing from a corner near the front door. He said, “Everybody keep down. I’m going to try to keep them the least bit busy here. Tom, you and Mr. Goodman go fetch Barrett and Myers. We’ve got to do something quick before we get drilled three or four times by the same bullet ricocheting around this room. Damn! There’s good things to be said about a stone house, but there’s also some bad things to be said. They’ll keep the bullets out, but if they get in, they’ll damned sure bounce around.”
Firing as fast as he could and reloading his rifle from the cartridges in his shirt pocket, Longarm was able to keep the return rifle fire to a minimum and also keep each end of the advancing line from flanking him. He knew that such tactics weren’t going to last long. Behind him, he heard a sudden cry and looked to his left. Young Rufus Goodman was squatting in the corner. He had his hand pressed to his right shoulder. Longarm could see blood. Longarm said, “Son, are you hurt?”