“I have faith in you,” Longarm said, pivoting around and gazing back toward Wickenburg. “I also have a very strong belief that we are being watched right now by the man that cut Eli’s throat last night. And that’s why we’re sticking close together until we leave this town.”
The preacher’s own eyes followed Longarm’s back to town. He seemed lost in some deep inner dilemma, but he finally dipped his chin in assent and led the way to Wickenburg’s largest general store, where they would outfit themselves for what Longarm was convinced would be a real ordeal.
Chapter 10
Longarm and the preacher named Dan rode out of Wickenburg headed southwest into the desert country.
“These are good horses,” Longarm said as they rode along. “Better’n a man can usually expect when he rents out of a livery.”
“I own the livery,” Dan said, looking a little embarrassed. “Along with a few other local businesses.”
Longarm was amazed. To look at Dan, you’d think he was a pauper. “You do?”
“That’s right,” the white-bearded man replied. “You act surprised, Marshal.”
“I am,” Longarm admitted.
“Is that because I dress very commonly and am called a preacher?”
“Partly. Preachers aren’t known to have much in the way of money.”
“Yes, but their true payment is everlasting life.”
“I suppose.”
They rode along in silence for a while, and then the preacher added, “Marshal, you’re probably curious about how I come by money.”
“That’s none of my business.”
“But it might be instructive,” Dan argued, “so I’ll tell you. About five years ago, the Lord drew me to a place far out in this desert and, just to test my faith, he put me in a terrible fix. Broke my leg, lost my horse and burro, had no water, and it was far hotter than it is right now.”
“Sounds like you were in a real bad fix.”
“Oh, I was!”
“So what happened?”
“When I began to die,” Dan answered, “instead of getting angry at God, I told Him I was grateful to be leaving this earth and going to His side. I told Him that I’d been suffering from prospector’s fever all my adult life and chasing earthly riches instead of eternal riches that His kingdom offered. I told Him that, if I ever had found gold, I probably would have just squandered it on sinful things—but that I was a changed man, thanks to my suffering. And then I said, “Take me, God, cause I’ve suffered enough, and please do it quick!’”
“Obviously, He had other plans.”
“Oh, yes, He did,” Dan said. “Half crazed by thirst and blinded by the sun, I staggered into a deep hole.”
“A hole?”
“Yep! It was a pit, really, filled with water from some deep underground spring. I tumbled into that water and it was like being baptized in the Jordan River. Suddenly, I could see again and my pain was gone. And at the bottom of that spring I found a sack full of gold nuggets.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Not quite as amazing as you might think. Why, less than fifty miles south it is not so uncommon to find water trickling sweetly out of sun-blasted canyon walls. And as for the gold, it was God’s miracle.”
“What did you do with the gold?”
“I prayed long and hard over that,” Dan replied. “At first, I thought that I should give it all away to those less fortunate than myself. But that wasn’t what the Lord wanted.”
“How did you know?”
“Every time I gave it to some poor soul, he’d just use it to commit a mighty sin and then generally wind up filling the pockets of bad men and soiled women.”
“Yeah,” Longarm said, “I can believe that. So what did you do?”
“I invested it in businesses. I figured that I’d donate half to myself and half to God’s works.”
“To charity.”
“That’s right. And you see, our missing friend, Jimmy Cox, became one of my favorite charities. Oh, I grubstaked others, but Jimmy and poor Eli were by far my favorites. They were both rough as the rest … and profane, but they had Christian hearts and would help anyone in their need. And I’ve seen them do it many a time. So, I helped them.”
“Did Jimmy ever tell you where he found those gold Spanish coins?”
“He wanted to tell me, but I wouldn’t let him.”
“Why?”
Dan scratched his long white beard. “Well, to begin with, I didn’t believe he’d really found those coins.”
“You sound like you changed your mind.”
“I did! Jimmy had too many of them, and it was clear that they were the real thing. At first, some folks in Wickenburg thought they were Mexican brass, but they quickly changed their minds. I’ll tell you, it caused quite a stir.”
“Any chance that the outlaw Hank Bass had something to do with Jimmy’s disappearance?” Longarm asked.
“Of course there is. Bass is a very evil man and those that ride for him are no better.”
“Well, Preacher, they don’t ride for him anymore.”
Dan cocked a bushy eyebrow, but he didn’t ask exactly what Longarm meant by that statement. “We’ll be riding today and most of tomorrow to get to where I think Jimmy disappeared.”
“I assume that will be the same place that he found the Spanish coins.”
“That’s right. We’ll camp there and have a look around. I went there right after Jimmy disappeared but couldn’t find anything to tell me what happened to him. But then, I’m not good at that sort of thing and you have the professional eye. I’m hoping there are a few clues, although the wind blows pretty hard out here and everything might have been brushed away.”
“You think he’s dead, don’t you?”
Dan sadly nodded his head. “Yes, I’m afraid that I do. I’m very afraid that whoever slit poor Eli’s throat also killed Jimmy. It seems to me that the two events must be related.”
“I agree,” Longarm said. “And it seems to me that whoever is behind all this must believe that there is still a lot of Spanish gold out here yet to be found.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because,” Longarm replied, “what other reason would they have for killing Eli after I talked to him about Jimmy?”
“To keep from being identified?”
“No,” Longarm said, “I didn’t know Eli at all, but you did and I’m sure you agree that the man would have identified Jimmy’s killers if he’d known their identities.”
“You’re right,” Dan said, nodding his head. “See, you have the mind for this sort of thing. I don’t.”
“Did Jimmy have any relatives?” Longarm asked.
“No. He never married. Always been a loner. I think that Eli, myself, and you must have been the only ones that he really trusted. You see, if a man stays out here in this desert by himself for too long, he starts to talk out loud, at first to his burro, if he has one, then to himself.”
“is that a fact?”
“It is,” Dan insisted. “I have carried on day-long conversations with myself and my burro. The three of us have argued and even almost come to blows a time or two. Now, I also talk to the Lord a lot, but someone like Eli or Jimmy, they don’t, and so they get to hearing strange voices.”
“You mean, in their heads?”
“That’s right,” Dan replied. “Sometimes the voices are friendly, but sometimes not. And after a long while, prospectors just sort of go a little crazy. I’m sure you’ve seen them wandering around frontier mining towns, muttering things to themselves. Arguing back and forth. It’s pretty common.”
“I doubt that Jimmy was crazy,” Longarm said. “He’d been a prospector a long, long time when I met him and he wasn’t crazy.”
“He changed some after he found those Spanish coins and started our big Wickenburg gold rush. People were always trying to get him drunk so he’d tell them where he found those coins. And they followed him everywhere. Jimmy got to where he wouldn’t hardly come into Wickenburg anymore.”
“I see.” Longarm squinted into the heat waves and watched a dust devil dance across the desert floor. This was, he knew, bad country to get into without a guide who knew the watering holes.