“In other words, about the amount of time it would take to ride from the headquarters into Quitman and then from Quitman to here.”
The engineer nodded. “I see what you’re saying, neighbor.”
“If I was you, I wouldn’t speak of it to anyone else except Eugene and ask him to tell Mister Simmons. But I think it’s very likely that you have a spy in your midst. What I would do is schedule a work party, and then I would see who came up sick or lame the next morning or who left camp and was suddenly missing or who couldn’t go along. You may not have that trouble anymore. It might be settled.”
The engineer looked at all the dead men lying out on the prairie. He said, “Yeah, but their kind is a dime a dozen. From what I’ve heard of the Gallaghers, they can raise fifty more of them overnight. No, I don’t reckon this business is finished, but I’ll sure keep it under my hat, this tip you gave me. I’m much obliged to you, Marshal.”
Longarm asked the engineer if he would wait, saying that he had another passenger for him. Without telling Fisher where he was going, he spurred his horse over to the foot of the butte, and then clambered up to the rocky ledge where they had made their fight. He had two vials of the nitro left, but he wouldn’t be able to take Pedro with him, not on the ride that they were going to have to make to the territorial line between Oklahoma and New Mexico. Nevertheless, he was going to use the burro to carry the iced nitro back down the butte.
With great care, Longarm loaded the canvas sacks back on the burro and secured them in place with ropes, and then took Pedro’s lead rope and started down the craggy half-mountain, half-rock. It was with some relief that he finally reached the bottom. He mounted his horse, taking Pedro on lead, and rode slowly over to the train.
He could see Fisher watching him. Of course, Fisher didn’t know there was another oilskin packet remaining in the canvas sacks. Longarm did.
At the train, he dismounted and carefully took the canvas bags off the burro. He patted the animal affectionately, and then saw that two of the crewmen lifted the burro up onto the flatcar. He said, “Take care of my old buddy there. He’s earned his keep today. Somebody make sure that he gets fed.”
One of the workmen said, “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that, sir. This here burro is one of Mister Eugene’s favorites. He’ll give him a mighty good feed tonight.”
Fisher and Longarm stood and watched as the train slowly backed down the line. In five minutes, it was out of sight back behind the next butte. After that, Longarm began the tender process of packing the two vials separately in each of his saddlebags. He gave all of his ammunition and his extra revolver to Fisher along with the remaining bottle of whiskey that he had.
Fisher said, “You ain’t going to do what I think you’re going to do, are you?”
“I don’t have much choice, Fish.”
“Well, I can tell you somebody who is not going to ride beside you.”
“I don’t blame you. If I’s you, I’d ride half a mile away.”
“Yeah, sure, so you could say that I was scared. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“No, I’d much rather have your company, to tell you the truth.”
Fisher gave him an astonished look. “Why, you sonofabitch. You don’t care much about a friend if you’d just as soon see him get blown sky-high with you.”
Longarm was busy packing his saddlebags with ice. He had brought one of the empty oilskin pouches with him. He loaded it with ice before carefully putting one of the vials of nitro inside, then closed the flap and buried it in the ice already in his saddlebags. That left the second vial by itself. He reloaded its contents with ice and put it in the other side of the saddlebags.
Fisher stood there in stunned silence, watching him. “I hope you realize that it ain’t exactly the same as that burro carrying them. That horse of yours is way and gone more jouncy than that burro.”
Longarm put his foot in his stirrup and stepped aboard his horse. He said, “I ain’t got a choice, Fisher.” He had the slingshot in his hand and he turned, unbuckled the flap of his saddlebags, and put it in with one of the vials of nitro.
Fisher said, “What in hell makes you think that you’re going to need that?”
“I still think that we’ll be badly outnumbered, or at least I’ll be badly outnumbered. You’ll be coming back this way. I think I’ve got a bad need for that nitro.”
Fisher said, “I think that you’ve got a bad need for somebody to cut a hole in your head and look inside and see what’s in there. I think there’s a whole bunch of crazy people running around in there.”
Longarm said, “Fish, we’ve got to get moving. We’re late right now.”
As they set off eastward at what Fisher declared was too fast a pace, although in reality it was nothing more than a steady walk, Longarm fretted about the time and the distance to the line. He said, “Fish, this is the best chance that I’ve ever had in my life to get the worst men that I’ve ever known. I can’t mess this one up. This one has got to happen.”
“Well, hell. Looks like we made a pretty good start on them back yonder.”
Longarm said, “Yeah, but it’s like what the engineer done took note of. Those were two-bit gunhands. The Gallaghers can get fifty more with just a wave of their hand. We didn’t do more than cut down on the force at hand. I’m going to bet that they have anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen back with them in Quitman.”
Fisher shook his head. “You wouldn’t think there was that many bad folks in this world, would you?”
“Well, you were a lawman, Fisher. You should know.”
Fisher said, “It’s the times, Longarm. When times are hard, everybody turns to crime. They don’t think there is any other way of getting any money, so they turn to pointing pistols at other people. I blame the government for this.”
Longarm gave him a look. “That’s like blaming the bull that fathered the calf that grew up to be a steer that you ate a steak off that was too tough. That don’t make a bit of sense. A man can make his own way, he don’t need no outside help.”
“Spoken like a man who gets his meals at the federal trough.”
Longarm smiled thinly. “What are you doing way over there, Fisher? I’m getting tired of raising my voice talking to you. Why don’t you ride up closer?”
Fisher said, “I’m just fine right where I am.”
Longarm chuckled. “Do you think that twenty-yard separation’s going to make any difference to this nitro? It’s going to blow you just as high as it’s going to blow me, if it goes off.”
“Longarm, don’t be turning your head toward me. You look straight ahead for gopher holes or anything else that your horse might stumble over. You better handle that animal better than anything you’ve ever handled in your life.”
“Fisher, if you’d have caught a stray bullet while we were up on that butte, would you have been any less dead than you would have been if you’d been blown up by this nitro?”
“The point is, I didn’t get hit by no stray bullet, and yet here I am, a damn fool, riding alongside of a man that has enough explosives on the ass end of his horse to make us as flat as this prairie.”
“I think we’re going to have to strike a trot to get there in time.”
“You just strike all the trots you want to, but you give me fair warning when you do so I can get the hell out of here.”
Longarm laughed slightly. “No, I’m serious, Fisher. What I think that you better do is to lope on ahead and see if you can spot them. If you do, get word to them that I am coming but my horse is lame and I’m having to take it slow.”
Fisher smiled. “You know, I think that’s the best idea that I’ve heard you have in my life. You keep on thinking like that and you’ll never get any argument out of me. Are you serious?”