Fisher gave him a look. “Oh, that’s a nice place to put blankets. On ice. That’s one hell of a way to keep warm. Someone ought to be proud of that kind of thinking.”
Finally, they established their camp under the protection of the rocks. Pedro stood patiently against the wall of the butte, perhaps grateful to have his load of ice removed.
Longarm had taken it off by himself, being extremely careful, calculating that it was the heaviest hundred pounds he had ever lifted in his life. He’d carried it away and put it behind a big boulder. He didn’t think that it would matter much if eight ounces of nitroglycerin decided to go off, but somehow having it out of sight like that made him feel better.
The blankets indeed had been packed on top of the ice. He’d taken them out carefully and then spread them on the rocks. Only the undersides of two of them were cold. They’d warm quickly.
Fisher said, “I don’t reckon we can make a fire.”
“No, I don’t reckon we can. What were you going to do? Fry that cheese or heat up a can of peaches?”
“I just find a fire sociable, Marshal Long, if it’s not too much trouble for you to comprehend.”
“Let’s get our bedrolls made and then settle down. You can sleep if you want to. It’s about eleven-thirty.”
Fisher said, “Strangely enough, I don’t feel sleepy.”
“You ought not to be hungry either. How many steaks did you eat back there at that cookhouse? Three?”
“Two. The same as you.”
“I didn’t know you were counting.”
They got settled under the night sky, each man taking three blankets. It had now turned seriously cool. Longarm calculated the temperature was in the low forties. If it had been noon, the temperature would have been nearly ninety degrees, but that was the desert for you. He knew it would get colder before dawn. For a time he sat, like Fisher, on one blanket with the other two shrouded over his shoulders. A thought occurred to him, and he went to his saddlebags and got out a bottle of whiskey and the slingshot. He went back and offered Fisher a drink.
This time Fisher said, “I believe I will. Of course, you understand, this is for medicinal purposes. To help fight off the cold.”
“Yeah, and rattlesnake bites.”
Fisher took a drink and passed the bottle back.
Longarm settled himself, had a drink, put the cork back in the bottle, and began examining the slingshot. There were a few small rocks lying nearby, and he put one in the leather pouch. He drew back the rubber bands and let fly into the night. He could see the stone curve well out into the flat land below. He lost it after it dipped below the horizon, but he could see that the slingshot was capable of carrying at least a hundred fifty to two hundred yards. It was going to make a very satisfactory weapon.
Fisher looked at him in astonishment. “What in the name of hell have you got there?”
“Ain’t you ever seen a slingshot before?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen a slingshot before, but I don’t recollect ever seeing a grown man with one, especially a grown man that’s out on some fairly serious business. Are you going bird hunting or squirrel hunting? What do you plan to do with that thing?”
Chapter 6
Longarm picked up another stone and fired it high into the night sky, admiring the arc it made. He said, “Oh, I reckon to kill me a giant.”
“Hell, who do you think you are? David? Ain’t nobody around here named Goliath.”
Longarm said, “This, my friend, might be the most deadly weapon you’ve ever seen.”
Fisher shook his head slowly. “I’m sitting on top of a rock with a crazy man wearing a badge who’s got a kid’s slingshot, and we might have two dozen armed bandits coming this way at first light. Can you beat that? You know, for years, I have told people that my mamma didn’t raise no fool. I was wrong, because here I am.”
Longarm said, “Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re still alive. I, don’t know how, but you are.”
“And another thing, when in the hell are you going to tell me what that ice is for? You plan on dumping it down this butte and freezing those folks to death?”
Longarm said, “I’m keeping something cold.” He had about decided that it was time that Fisher knew what his plan was. He had gotten this far, and Longarm was pretty certain that Fisher would stay. Fisher asked, “Exactly what do you need to keep cold?”
Longarm said, “Do you promise not to get nervous if I tell you?”
“Well, I don’t know what you could have sitting on ice that would make me nervous, unless it was that woman that you had in Taos. She sounds like she could use some cooling down. Yeah, I promise I won’t get nervous.”
“No matter what it is?”
“No matter what it is. I don’t think there is anything more that you could do or say to me in the history of our acquaintance that would make me nervous. I’ve been through the wars with you, Longarm, and I’ve been in some places that I swore that I’d never get into, and I got into them because of you, and I’m still here. What do you have in the ice?”
Longarm looked around at Fish so he could see his face fairly distinctly in the moonlight. He said, “Nitro.”
Fish blinked. “What?”
“Nitroglycerin.”
Fish made a sighing sound. “Are you telling me that you packed some nitroglycerin on the back of that burro all the way from Springer with me riding right next to him? Are you going to tell me that, huh?”
“Not if it’s going to make you nervous.”
Fisher swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing prominantly. He said, “You mean, on that banging, swaying, jerking, bucking train there was some nitroglycerin? That stuff that goes off if you even breathe on it wrong?”
“That very stuff. Nitroglycerin. Highly unstable. The secret is keeping it cold, Fish. Even then, there ain’t no guarantee.”
“Am I to understand then that sitting over there behind that boulder in those canvas sacks full of ice there is some nitroglycerin in there, not ten yards from where I am sitting?”
Longarm nodded. “Yes.”
Almost imperceptibly, Fisher began to back away. “You got just a little bit, right?”
“Not very much.”
Fisher was easing himself backward, using his hands to slide his rump along the rock ledge. “What do you mean, not much?”
Longarm gave him an innocent look. “Oh, eight ounces.”
Fisher’s chin slumped to his chest. He said, “Lord, I am ten yards from eight ounces of nitroglycerin and I’m here with a madman, a crazy man. Please get me somewhere else, a long way away somewhere else.”
Longarm said mildly, “I didn’t know you were a praying man, Fish. I’m right pleased to find it out. That just goes to prove that there is good in everything, even nitroglycerin. I might have gone on to believe you were a benighted heathen, and now I know better.”
Fisher glared at him. “Longarm, you are the low-downest, dirtiest sonofabitch that I have ever known in my life. You let me walk right beside, ride right beside, enough nitroglycerin to have blown you and me and all the animals to Connecticut, and now I’m sitting ten yards from it. Longarm, I’m scared of that stuff.”
“So am I. Anybody with a lick of sense would be scared of it.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
“I’m not going to go over there and shake it, if that’s what you mean.”
Fisher gave him a sour look. “You know damn good and well what I mean. What are you going to do about it?”
Longarm shrugged. “I’m going to let it be. If I was you, I’d do the same. It’s nice and safe in that ice.”
“Yeah, it’s nice and safe in that ice, but what about when that ice melts underneath it and it falls?”
Longarm had not thought of that, and it sent a sudden chill through him. “There you go, Fisher, always thinking the worst. That nitroglycerin is packed on the bottom, the ice is on top of it, so it can’t fall. It’s carefully wrapped. The men that put that nitro together for us are mining engineers. They deal with this stuff all the time, so they know exactly what they are doing.”