“Let them,” Longarm testily replied. “You can tell them that Deputy Lane took her to … to Sacramento.”
“Me?” Lane asked with surprise. “Take a prisoner to Sacramento?”
“You’ll just be a decoy,” Longarm explained to the young lawman.
“He’s making sense, Frank,” Marshal Jones said. “You just ride on over to Sacramento. Put up in a hotel and then the next day sneak out and return to keep the lid on things back in Placerville. By the time this Huffington crowd realizes they’ve been tricked, Marshal Long can have Noah’s real murderer locked up in this jail.”
“All right,” the young deputy agreed. “Then I guess we’ll all three leave together?”
“That’s the plan,” Longarm told him.
“Hey!” Jack shouted from his jail cell. “Why don’t the deputy take us with him to Sacramento where we can get a fair trial? We won’t get one here!”
“You’ll have a court trial,” Longarm told the prisoner. “But since you’re both guilty, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference where you’re hanged—just as long as you both are hanged!”
Jack cursed a blue streak at them, but the older prisoner named William just sat on his bunk with his head held low, staring blankly at the floor.
After that, they all waited until after midnight when the street was empty. Then Longarm put a coat and Stetson on Stella and led her to the front door saying, “We’re going to need some horses.”
“I’ve got a friend with a corral full,” Stella replied. “We can trust him to keep a secret.”
“Good,” Longarm answered. “Just keep your head low and lead the way. I’ll make sure we are not being followed.”
“I’ve got my own horse,” Deputy Lane said, extending his hand. “Good luck, Custis. I just wish that I could stay and help out here in Auburn.”
“You can help us most by being a decoy,” Longarm said. “And by getting back to Placerville and maintaining the law.”
“Yeah, I suppose,” Lane said, but he still looked disappointed.
Longarm nodded to his friend Pete. “You just take care of yourself.”
“Oh, sure,” Pete said. “I expect that I’ll be hearing from you in a day or two.”
“You will,” Longarm promised as he pushed outside followed by Stella.
“Just follow me,” she whispered.
As soon as they reached the end of the first block, Stella turned right and then ducked into an alley. If there had not been a full moon, Longarm was sure that they would have been in trouble as they made their way down the dark, litter-strewn alley in what was definitely not one of Auburn’s nicer sections. Several times, dogs began to bark loudly, and one almost charged out and attacked them, but Longarm grabbed a board and the animal slunk away.
“How far is this place?” Longarm asked.
“Just up ahead,” Stella assured him.
Ten minutes later they were almost to the outskirts of town when Stella halted and then pointed to a run-down shack with a nearby horse corral.
“It belongs to old Julio Ortiz,” she told Longarm. “He is a very close friend.”
“Will Julio realize that he’ll be taking a risk by helping us?”
“He won’t care,” Stella assured him. “Julio lives alone. I hire him to do odd jobs at my saloon, and I’ve been able to do little favors for him for a number of years. He’s a very good man and was a vaquero until he became too stiff to risk any more bad falls from a horse. Now, he trains them mostly on the ground, and I often loan him money to buy broncs and outlaw horses that he can tame and then resell at a good profit.”
“Then lead the way,” Longarm said as they crept forward toward the shack.
As soon as Stella knocked, a dog inside began to bark. Longarm heard the distinctly metallic click of a gun being cocked, then a soft “Who is it?”
“It’s Stella. I am with Marshal Long. We need to borrow some horses, Julio.”
They heard the old California vaquero quiet his barking dog before he opened the door and stood silhouetted in lamplight.
“Senorita Vacarro! I heard about Senor Huffington being killed. I am so sorry!”
“So am I,” Stella replied sadly. “Julio, this is a good friend, Marshal Custis Long. He is also helping me. We need horses and a place to hide.”
“You could stay here.”
“No,” Stella said. “They would think to come and search this place and you might become a target for their anger.”
“I am not afraid to die for someone like you,” Julio vowed, straightening up and puffing out his chest like a fearless old fighting rooster.
Longarm was impressed. Although Julio Ortiz was bent and could not have weighed over 125 pounds soaking wet, he had courage and dignity.
“We need two good horses,” Longarm explained. “It would help if they had speed and endurance.”
“Of course, Senor,” Ortiz said. “Would you both care to come inside?”
“Thank you, but no,” Stella replied. “We’ll wait by the corral for you.”
“I have two very fine horses for you, Senorita,” Ortiz promised them.
“Thank you.”
Longarm and Stella walked over to the corral. There were about twenty horses penned up inside, but half of them were lying down and the rest were bunched up together, so that it was impossible to judge their quality.
“I know a very good place to hide,” Stella said. “It’s only about six miles to the east, but higher up in the hills. It used to be an old prospector’s cabin and I bought it from him a few years ago when he was destitute.”
“That sounds good to me,” Longarm said. “But what about food for ourselves and the horses?”
“I keep the place stocked. It was a hideaway for Noah and me. We …” Stella’s voice cracked with emotion. “We spent a lot of happy times there.”
“I’m sorry that-“
But Stella didn’t let him finish because she placed her finger against his lips. “Noah wouldn’t want me to grieve,” she said. “And so I won’t.”
Julio emerged into the moonlight with a braided leather reata. He entered the corral, the reata dangling loosely from his right hand. The horses began to mill about with agitation, and Longarm saw the reata snake out to catch a tall buckskin gelding. The animal froze, and Julio soon had it bridled and was leading it outside the corral.
“This one is for you, Senor,” he said with obvious pride. “A fine animal, no?”
“Very fine,” Longarm agreed.
“Now yours, Senorita,” Julio said as he re-entered the corral and quickly roped a beautiful sorrel mare.
They had both animals saddled ten minutes later, and Julio gave them a bag full of tortillas and a jug of strong red wine. “This is to keep you warm tonight,” he said with a slight bow. “Adios!”
“I won’t soon forget this, Julio. And if anyone comes asking if you have seen me …”
“My lips will forever be sealed,” he vowed.
They rode swiftly away, and the horses were eager to run.” Since both Longarm and Stella were wearing coats with their hats pulled down low, Longarm knew that neither one of them would have been recognized, even if they had come upon some night travelers. The six or seven miles they traveled took them at least another couple of thousand feet higher, and the air grew cold, while the stars seemed to glitter even more intensely.
Stella’s little cabin was set deep in the forest beside a fine stream. There was a corral hidden behind the cabin for the horses, and grass hay in a lean-to barn where they stored their saddles, bridles, and blankets.
Stella lit a candle, and Longarm could see that the inside of her cabin had been completely refurbished. It had a good hardwood floor, comfortable furniture, and a very well-stocked pantry.
“I should probably light a fire,” Longarm said, briskly rubbing his hands together. “But I’m worried that someone would see the smoke and come to investigate.”