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The desk clerk swallowed and worked up the nerve to ask, “Bad news, Marshal?”

“You could say that,” Longarm replied. He fished his watch out of his vest pocket, flipped it open, and checked the time. It was almost six o’clock. “When does the southbound train for El Paso pull out?”

“Why, six-thirty, I believe. If it’s on schedule, and it usually is.”

“Get my bill ready,” muttered Longarm. “I’m leaving.”

He jammed the telegram into his coat pocket and turned toward the stairs. When he reached his third-floor room, he began packing. That didn’t take long, since all he had was a few spare clothes, which he stuffed in his war bag, and his Winchester. He had the bag slung over one shoulder and the rifle canted over the other when he came downstairs again. Paying the bill prepared by the clerk took only a moment, and then Longarm strode out of the hotel and headed for the railroad station.

It was only six-fifteen when he got there. The sun was still up, although it rode low enough in the western sky so that its light had taken on a rosy hue. Smoke puffed from the diamond stack of the big locomotive as porters loaded baggage and passengers boarded. As he looked down the line of cars, Longarm saw that ramps had been lowered from several of them to the ground alongside the tracks. Those were the cars where the racehorses, including Senator Padgett’s Caesar and the Cassidy sisters’ Matador, would be loaded for the trip to El Paso and the next stop on the racing circuit.

Longarm walked through the station lobby and onto the platform, looking for Padgett. He spotted the senator climbing the steps to one of the passenger cars, followed by his assistant, Leon Mercer. Longarm’s hands were full, since he was carrying both his war bag and the Winchester, so he settled for calling out, “Senator!”

Padgett stepped up onto the platform at the rear of the car and looked back to see who was hailing him. A look of surprise appeared on his face as he recognized Longarm.

The rangy lawman’s long legs carried him across the station platform and up the steps of the railroad car. Padgett said, “What are you doing here, Marshal? I didn’t think you were leaving Albuquerque just yet.”

“Neither did I,” Longarm said curtly. He set his war bag on the car’s platform and pulled the telegram from his coat pocket. “But that was before I got this.” He held out the yellow flimsy to Padgett. The politico took the message and read it:

IN LIGHT OF ATTEMPT ON SENATOR PADGETT’S LIFE NEW ORDERS ARE AS FOLLOWS STOP YOU ARE ASSIGNED TO SENATOR AS BODYGUARD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE STOP PROTECT LIFE AT ALL COSTS STOP VAIL U.S. MARSHAL DENVER.

Padgett looked up at Longarm with a confused frown on his face and asked, “What does this mean?”

Longarm figured Padgett knew what it meant just as well as he did. “It means I’m going with you to El Paso, and then on to Tucson and Carson City and wherever the hell else that racing circuit you’ve joined up with is going. Unless and until Billy Vail decides otherwise, that is.”

“But … but I thought you were going after those men who murdered your fellow marshals.”

“So did I,” Longarm said grimly. “I thought about sending a wire back to Vail and telling him I wasn’t going to do it, but I knew if I did, I might as well go ahead and take my badge off for good.” He shook his head. “After I thought about it for a while, I figured I wasn’t ready to do that.”

“Well, this is patently unfair. You want to go after the men who killed your friends, and I don’t blame you. Besides, there’s no real reason for me to have a bodyguard.”

“Someone did try to kill you earlier today, Senator,” Leon Mercer pointed out. His tone was rather offended as he went on. “You see, I told you you shouldn’t have insisted that I stay at the hotel while you went to the racetrack this morning.”

Padgett’s frown turned to one of irritation. “Damn it, I’m still not convinced that gunman wasn’t shooting at you, Marshal Long. I’d think a lawman would be much more likely to have violent enemies than a mere politician.”

“Maybe so, but that ain’t always the way it is,” Longarm said. “Like it or not, Senator, it looks like we’re stuck with each other, for a while anyway.”

Padgett nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Well, I for one will be very happy to have the marshal with us,” Mercer put in. “I didn’t relish the idea of continuing on through the West with bullets whizzing around our heads.”

“It wouldn’t have come to that-” Padgett began.

He was interrupted by a voice that still seemed soft and sweet as honeysuckle, despite the fact that it had been raised to call out, “Why, Marshal Long, what are you doing here? Did you come to see us off?”

Longarm turned his head and saw Janice and Julie Cassidy standing beside the next car in line. Both young women were wearing simple yet elegant traveling outfits, and they were as lovely today as they had been the day before. Longarm lifted a hand in greeting as Janice hurried down the station platform toward him, followed by Julie.

Janice gathered her skirt and came up the steps at the rear of the car, joining Longarm, Padgett, and Mercer. The relatively small area was getting crowded, but Longarm managed to lift a hand to the brim of his hat as he nodded and said, “Nice to see you again, Miss Janice. Looks like I’m going to be traveling with the senator for a while.”

“Oh, how wonderful!” exclaimed Janice. “How did this happen to come about?”

Longarm shot a glance at Padgett and read a warning in the politician’s eyes. There had been no witnesses to the attempt on Padgett’s life at the racetrack except for Longarm, Cy, and the mysterious gunman himself, of course. Nor would there be any mention of it in the newspaper the next day, so the word wouldn’t get out. Longarm had seen to that. He understood what Padgett was trying to tell him: The senator didn’t want someone as flighty as Janice Cassidy knowing about what had happened. She would be bound to gossip about it. Longarm agreed with that reasoning.

“My boss has decided I ought to stick close to the senator,” Longarm said easily. “Important fellas like him have to have somebody around to look out for them.” That was close enough to the truth.

“That sounds perfectly reasonable to me,” Julie put in from the station platform. “Come on, Janice, we have to get settled.”

Sure enough, as soon as the words were out of Julie’s mouth, the conductor came along the station platform, bawling out the traditional “‘Boooarrdd! All aboard!”

Janice leaned toward Longarm and brushed her lips across his cheek in a quick kiss. “I’m so glad you’re traveling with us, Custis,” she murmured throatily. “We’re going to have so much fun!”

Longarm refrained from pointing out that he was actually traveling with Senator Padgett, not with Janice and her sister. And he suspected that the second part of her statement was incorrect as well. Given the lusty nature of Janice Cassidy and the hinted-at sensuousness of Julie, this journey around the racing circuit might well have its entertaining moments.

But if he found what he was looking for, it wasn’t going to be fun, thought Longarm. No, sir, not much fun at all …

Chapter 5

The train was slightly behind schedule as it pulled out on the run from Albuquerque to El Paso. Senator Padgett had a private compartment, befitting his status as an important man, and Longarm intended to share it with him despite the fact that it might get a little crowded with three gents in it. Leon Mercer, of course, was staying close to the senator, although Longarm doubted that the assistant would be much help in case of trouble. Not that Longarm expected another assassination attempt, at least not right away.