Fisher asked, “Are you sure of that?”
Without the slightest idea that what he was saying was true, Longarm said, “Of course I’m sure. It was explained carefully.” He said it with conviction, but the thought of the ice melting below one of the vials and allowing it to suddenly slide down and hit the rock ledge was nearly more than he could bear. It didn’t matter that he was slightly closer to the nitroglycerin than Fisher. All that meant was that he might have one millionth less of a second to live than Fisher. He put on an elaborate yawn. He said, “Fisher, the trouble is not tonight. That stuff is cold in that ice and it’s cold outside. We haven’t got a thing to worry about. Our trouble is tomorrow when the Gallaghers show up. And of course, if they don’t show up, that’s real trouble.”
“If they don’t show up it’s trouble? You want to explain that to me?”
“That means we have to go get them.”
Fisher stuck out a finger. “No, that means you have to go get them. At first light, I’ve discharged my responsibilities and I’m getting on my horse and I’m heading right back to Taos.”
Longarm shook his head sadly. “I’d hate for word to get around that you let a friend down, Fish. A lot of people would find that hard to believe of you.”
Fish said, “Not when they find out what you’ve done to me, they won’t.”
Longarm said mildly, “As far as I can tell, Fish, I haven’t caused you the slightest bit of trouble. I’ve brought you on a nice train ride, and here we are out in this beautiful country on a beautiful night. We’ve got a bottle of whiskey, although I know you don’t care much for it, but it’s still a very pleasant experience. If there was a little more light, we could play some poker.”
Fisher said grimly, “There’s enough light and I’ve got a deck of cards in my pocket. We’ll just play a few hands of heads-up poker and I’m going to have every cent that you have on you before dawn because I damn sure ain’t going to sleep with that bundle of joy that you’ve got hid behind that boulder. How in the world could a man sleep never knowing if he’s going to be blown to kingdom come without even being aware of it. Besides that, if I’m going to go out, I’m going to go out taking something of yours with me, namely your money.”
Longarm said, “Well, Fish, there’s no sense in you getting yourself worked up about it. I’m perfectly willing to play you some small-stakes heads-up poker. Get the cards out and spread a blanket around here so we can get some light on the subject. We ought to get some of that cheese and crackers out in case we want to break for a meal.”
They played all through the night, dollar ante, five-dollar limit, five-card stud. By the first gray streaks of the false dawn, somewhere around five o’clock, Longarm had lost 215 dollars. It was all he had except the change in his pocket. He said, “Fish, I ain’t got no money left. Will you take my marker?”
Fish gave him a look. “Is there a prospect of a gunfight?”
“I expect there is,” Longarm said. “That’s what we’re here for.”
“And you want me to take the marker of a man who is about to go into a gunfight?”
Longarm nodded his head gently. “You’ve got a point there, Fish. I don’t know what’s come over me lately. I guess I confused you with a human being.”
“Tell you what I’ll do,” Fish said. “Since you are down, I’ll allow you a hundred dollars on that dun horse of yours and we’ll double the stakes.”
Longarm said, “A hundred dollars for the dun? I paid three hundred dollars for that horse when he was a four-year-old. He’s six now and he’s worth two hundred dollars more than that now.”
Fish said, “All right. I’ll go a hundred and a half. Take it or leave it.”
“Well, under the circumstances, I guess I’ll have to take it, but let’s triple the stakes. Three-dollar ante, fifteen-dollar limit.”
“Oh, no, you don’t. I didn’t win your money with three dollars and fifteen dollars, and you ain’t gonna win it back with three dollars and fifteen dollars. We’ll double it, that’s enough.”
When true dawn finally broke some forty-five minutes later, Longarm had won all but fifty dollars of his money back. He said, slamming down his cards to indicate that was the last hand, “There, let that be a lesson to you, Fish. Don’t ever loan anybody any money for a card game. You ought to know better than that.”
“I can guarantee you that I will never again make that exception in your case. What now?”
Longarm yawned. “I guess we’d better get ready. I think we’re going to have company coming. In fact, off yonder to the west I believe I hear the sound of the train that is supposed to bring the work crew to start in laying track.”
Fish asked, “Then what’s supposed to happen?”
“Then, if things go according to plan, I’m expecting the Gallagher bunch to come charging down on that track crew and wreck whatever work they’ve done. I don’t know how long it will take them to get here. They may not arrive here before noon.”
Fish said grimly, “In the meanwhile, it is going to start getting hot and that ice will begin to melt, and pretty soon that nitroglycerin is going to get right lively. Is that right, Mister Deputy Marshal Lawman Custis Long?”
“I ain’t going to lie to you, Fish. That’s a fact. They’ve brought a fresh supply of ice on that train that’s bringing the workers in, and maybe you can slip down there and get us a batch of it in case we need some more. I just checked on the ice a few minutes ago and we’ve got half what we started with.”
“Yeah, and it was damn near freezing last night.”
In less than half an hour, the train came chugging out of the mountains, heading toward the end of the line. It was just an engine with a couple of flatbed cars behind it loaded with men and rails and cross-ties. Longarm shaded his eyes and tried his best to count the workers he could see. He said, “Looks like there is about twelve or fourteen of them.”
Fish asked, “Are they supposed to be some help to us?”
“No. Their instructions are at the first sign of trouble, they are supposed to pile on that train and take off. The engineer is supposed to keep the steam up.”
“So, you’re having them lay track to entice the Gallagher brothers in here. What makes you think the Gallagher brothers themselves will come?”
“Oh, I doubt very seriously that either one of the Gallagher brothers will be in the gang that attacks the track-laying crew.”
Fish asked, “Then what the hell are we doing here?”
Longarm looked at his friend. “Cutting down the odds, Fish, cutting down the odds. The real play, I feel, will take place this afternoon. The one thing that we have to try our best to do is to wipe out every man in this raiding party. I don’t want a soul, if it can be helped, getting back to the strip or to Quitman and getting back to the Gallagher brothers. I assume you are still the shot you once were.”
“I reckon that I can handle my end. That is, if that joy juice don’t blow us into small pieces.”
“Would you quit worrying about that nitro? It ain’t blowed up yet.”
Fish said, “And we won’t know when it does. I suppose you’re not worried.”
“Of course I’m worried. I just don’t see the point in talking about it all the time.”
“I think you’re scareder than I am.”
“Dammit, Fish, shut up. Get ready. Get your weapons and your ammunition laid out. My God, we’ve got a fight coming up here, maybe. Try to act like you know what you’re doing.”
It was good daylight when the train crew and the workers dismounted. The workers went about their business preparing the roadbed to accept new cross-ties and then new rails. Longarm noticed that the engineer very carefully kept half-steam up in his boiler. Longarm could faintly hear the chuf-chuf of the engine, and he could see small white puffs of smoke and steam rising from the smokestack. The workers seemed to only have half their eye on their job. The other half was directed toward their east, where they expected the raiding party to appear. Longarm calculated that where he and Fish were positioned was about half a mile further east than where the workers were. If he didn’t allow the bandits across a line drawn from the butte perpendicular to the line of the train, he didn’t figure there was any danger to the workmen.