Lee Gray was not in the dining room the next morning when Longarm entered the place and sat at a corner table. He went ahead with his breakfast, ordering ham, a half-dozen eggs, and biscuits with gravy and a pot of coffee. He ate slowly, looking the room over. It was sparsely filled, but then it probably wasn’t supposed to be a going concern, a business that made money. The hotel was obviously a hobby for the Nelson brothers, a place where they could have parties in town without forcing their guests to ride fifteen miles across the New Mexico prairie. Longarm was about halfway through his breakfast when he saw Lee come in, go to a far table, and sit where he could keep an eye on Longarm. Longarm made no sign other than to wave the waiter over and ask for more biscuits.
As he ate, Longarm thought for perhaps the thousandth time about the United States Marshal Service. It had come into being back when there were more territories than states, mostly because local law could not cope with the banditry and lawlessness that flourished all along the frontiers and among the rough and ready elements of the interior. Too many of the lawmen were corrupt, and those who weren’t corrupt were weak, and those who weren’t corrupt or weak were dead. The worst problem was that local lawmen’s areas of jurisdiction were small. A town marshal was confined to the limits of his town, and a sheriff to his county. There were some state lawmen such as the Texas Rangers or the Arizona Rangers, but they were few and far between, often badly organized, and for the most part badly run. As a result, the federal government had created a body of lawmen who had authority anywhere within the boundaries of the United States and their authority was greater than that of any local law. They could take a prisoner away from any sheriff; they could make a prisoner out of any local sheriff. They had authority to act as judge and jury if none were available. They were, because of the circumstances of the times and places and distances, virtually a law unto themselves. As a result, standards for entering the service were very high.
But yet, here he was in a town unable to use that authority on a possibly corrupt sheriff and a possibly corrupt town marshal and mayor. It was perplexing at the very least. He could commandeer a train from a federally subsidized railroad if he had to, and he could commandeer any useful article, be it animal or man, off any army post or military post or government or federal post of any sort in the United States. He could write out a voucher for a horse or a house or a whore, and that voucher would be honored by the United States Treasurer, though in the case of the house or the whore he probably wouldn’t have a job very long. But with all that authority, he had to slip around in a one-horse, two-dog town. It made him nearly angry, although anger was something he seldom indulged in.
Longarm finished his breakfast and then dawdled over his last cup of coffee, waiting for Lee Gray to finish. He didn’t want to get too far ahead of his backup. His plan was to go straight to the sheriff’s office and elicit whatever information he could. He had not yet decided on an approach; he figured he would play it as it went. He did want to have a word or two with Lee about the possibility of a mount before he saw the sheriff. He figured they could do that outside on the sidewalk. He figured he could borrow a match from Lee or Lee could borrow a match from him.
When he saw that Lee was about finished, he called the waiter over and paid his tab, and then sauntered leisurely out of the dining room and across the big lobby through the big doors. Then he stopped on the boardwalk underneath the big overhang that fronted the hotel. The town was up and moving, though it didn’t seem to be much of a thriving concern. Like most towns of New Mexico, it mainly depended on a few cattle ranches, a few goat ranches, and what few hopeful miners were still working the exhausted claims. There was silver to be found in that part of the state, but not much in the way of gold. That was further up north around the mountain country.
Lee Gray came out, and Longarm stuck a cheroot in his mouth. There was no one around, but he still said, “Got a match, stranger?”
Gray fished in his pocket and handed him a yellow-headed match. Longarm struck it with the thick nail of his thumb, got the cheroot drawing good, and then flicked the match away. He said, “Much obliged, neighbor. Wonder where a man would go about getting a good horse around here.”
Gray was looking off as if he were trying to recognize someone across the street. He said, “There’s a livery stable about two blocks east of here toward the train depot. There’s two damned good horses in there and two sets of rigging and saddles. I brought them with me. I might be willing to loan one of them out to the necessary people if the price was right.”
Longarm said, still without looking at Lee, “Neighbor, I don’t see where you have too much choice since those two animals just became government property. As you know, since you’ve been one before, a special deputy draws six dollars a day and has to furnish his own mount and cartridges.”
Lee Gray chuckled dryly. “Yeah, but they don’t say nothing about me furnishing you a mount.”
“Let’s just kind of stroll that way and we’ll discuss this as we go. Either one of these horses worth anything?”
They walked along slowly as two men might, tipping their hats to the few ladies that passed.
Gray said, “I’ve got a six-year-old black in there. He’s quarter horse and Morgan crossed. I haven’t found bottom in him yet and on top of that, he’s got some speed. Not a hell of a lot of speed, just some, but if I wanted a horse that would last, that would be the one. The only thing is, he hasn’t really been tried around gunfire. He’s still young, six years old, and he’s got a full neck because I didn’t cut him until he was around four.”
“And I guess the other horse is the best?”
“The other horse is like me. A little older and a good deal wiser. Got a ten-year-old bay, one of the calmest, stablest stallions I’ve ever known. I never did cut him. Of course, you know if you get him near a mare in season, he’s going to act like a stallion, just like you do.”
Longarm said, “Do I get my choice?”
Lee Gray said, “I never known you to crack a lot of jokes, mister. Is that one supposed to be funny?”
“All right, I reckon I’ll take the black.”
“I’ll just walk you on down there then,” said Lee Gray, and introduce you to the stable man and tell him that you’re renting that horse. You give him a dollar or two and he’ll give it extra care.”
“Why don’t you give him a dollar or two?”
“Because you’ve got to if you want the horse well cared for and you’re going to be the one riding him.”
Longarm said dryly, “You always was a quick thinker.”
The two men went into the livery stable and Longarm looked the black over. He was a medium-sized horse, weighing somewhere between nine hundred and a thousand pounds. He had a long neck and a long body. Longarm could tell he was a stayer by the size of his chest. He also had big enough hind quarters, and Longarm figured that the horse could get some speed. Lee Gray completed the instructions to the stable hand, and Longarm gave him a couple of dollars and asked the boy to make sure and keep the horse well supplied with feed and hay and water. He gave the boy a wink and said, “I know he’d get it anyway, but this way, you get a little extra and I make sure that I’ve got a little extra horse under me. This man here claims that black is a good one. What do you think?”
The kid, who couldn’t have been more than seven or eighteen years old, nodded his head vigorously. “Oh, yes, sir. If this gentleman says this horse is a good one, then he is a good one. You can tell it just by looking at him.”