Longarm glanced back to see how Fisher and the other man were faring. By now, they were close to a mile away, although Longarm noticed that Fisher had imperceptibly dropped back behind the other man. Not much, but just to where he had the advantage.
Longarm said, “By the way, whatever happened to your other brother, Vern?”
Gallagher’s eyes narrowed to slits. He said, “Some sonofabitch blowed him all to hell just outside of Lawton. It was at Lily Gail’s place. Damnedest thing that you ever saw. We had a man, a cousin by the name of Emmett, working there at that time. He came and told us that there was trouble and that we needed to come and help Lily Gail. Emmett led Vern and five or six others from the family, but they never came back, Marshal Custis Long. Everything exploded. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
Longarm said evenly, “Listen, Gallagher. I’m only interested in one thing and that’s what kind of a deal we can make. I don’t know about your brother, I don’t know about your family, I don’t know about your old man that started this whole thing. All I know is that if you are as innocent as you claim you are, then you have nothing to worry about. If people have been going around committing, as you call it, depredations in your name, then we’d want to put a stop to all that, wouldn’t we? So, you just lead off.”
Without another word, Clem Gallagher started his horse off. He was to Longarm’s left. Longarm didn’t know if he had planned it that way, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. As featureless as the terrain was, there was very little cover to be seen, other than the old shack.
They rode along silently. Longarm’s thoughts, however, were beginning to turn to the nitroglycerin. Now it was protected by nothing but the ice in the oilskin packets. He hoped that it would be enough because by now the sun was boiling down hot enough to cook a lizard on a flat rock.
They were proceeding in a due easterly direction across the barren land. Longarm tried to keep his position slightly behind Clem Gallagher, but Gallagher seemed aware of the move and the more Longarm slowed his horse, the more Gallagher did the same, making sure they stayed abreast. Ahead and off to their right about fifty yards was the dilapidated-looking two-story house. It was bigger than the usual run of sodbusters’ homesteads. Somebody with enough money to truck enough lumber by wagon to build such a place had had a try at making a living off the barren ground. He knew that about four miles further on was the town of Quitman. Very little went on there besides drinking, gambling, whoring, and fighting. It drew the worst of a bad lot of people from a fifty-mile radius. If there was one thing that the Cimarron Strip could claim no shortage of, it was riffraff, bandits, criminals, and murderers of every ilk and every description.
They were just coming opposite the old house with its sagging porch and knocked-out windowpanes when Clem Gallagher suddenly stopped his horse. Longarm looked around at him. He said, “What’s going on, Gallagher?”
Gallagher spurred his horse and wheeled around to face Longarm. He said, “Well, Mister Deputy Marshal Custis Long. The famous Longarm who’s been dogging our tracks for years, nipping at our heels, caused our daddy an early death, killed God knows how many kin of ours. Well, now, Mister Sonofabitch, the shoe’s on the other foot and it ain’t on your horse. It’s fixing to be on your neck. Do you hear me?”
Longarm stared back at him. He said evenly, “I don’t know what kind of hand you’re playing here, Gallagher, but it’s a very dangerous one, unless you’re better with that revolver at your side than I think you are.”
“Oh, I ain’t going to need this revolver. You just glance to your right, Mister Famous Lawman. There’s five rifles trained on you out from that shack you thought was deserted.”
Longarm said, “Yeah, who says so?”
“Just have yourself a look.”
Longarm cut his eyes ever so slightly to the right. He had no difficulty spotting the rifles suddenly protruding from the broken windows. He counted five in a swift glance. At twenty-five yards they couldn’t possibly miss him.
He turned his head back to Clem Gallagher. “I expected something like this, Gallagher. That’s why we have Rufus. If I’m not back in two hours, your brother is going to be hung up from an oak tree and skinned alive. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
The thin-faced man drew his lips back in what Longarm took to be some sort of a satisfied smile. “Why, you damn fool. That wasn’t Rufus. That were a second cousin of ours named Jeremiah Kettle.”
Longarm said slowly, “I see. So the scar on the jaw was just a coincidence. Is that right?”
“Do you mean would Miss Lily Gail deliberately lie to you9 Well, I don’t know about that, Longarm. Maybe she just got confused. A lot of people mistake Orvil for my brother Rufus. You ain’t so very damn smart yourself. I was doing all the talking and Rufus is the elder. Do you reckon that I’d have been doing all that talking if Rufus had been there?”
“I guess I was a little slow about that.”
“I reckon that you’re going to be slow about a lot of things by the time we get through with you.”
“Well, I’m still confused. How did Lily Gail make up a story like that so quick? You couldn’t have anticipated that.”
Clem Gallagher made that smile again. “That’s a mighty smart little lady, Marshal Longarm. She does things real good. It appears that some of the things she does you like. Some of them other things, you don’t like.”
“That man is still your second cousin. You know that he’ll never make it back to you.”
Clem Gallagher said, “Who the hell cares? I’ve got more damn cousins than your mother has fleas.”
“I guess you must be an expert on fleas, Gallagher. You appear to have some in your brain. Do you have any idea what’s going to happen to you if you harm a deputy U.S. marshal? You think you’ve been hunted before? That ain’t a drop in the ocean to what will happen afterwards. The entire marshals service will devote the rest of their time to running you to the ground.”
Clem Gallagher spat over the side of his horse. “Who gives a damn. We ain’t scared of your marshals service. Ya’ll have been trying to catch us for years. You ain’t done a very good job of it.”
Longarm said, “I think you’re lying about Rufus.”
Clem laughed. He turned his head toward the house. He yelled, “Rufus! Rufus! There’s a man out here that thinks you ain’t here! He thinks that you went off into New Mexico Territory with that other marshal! What did you do that for?”
Longarm turned his head to the right and looked at the shack. As he did, a man wearing an identical linen duster, only taller and heavier, came walking out carrying a carbine. He, too, wore a black flat-crowned hat, but around his neck he had a red handkerchief bound to keep the dirt from getting down inside his shirt. Longarm could see that he was wearing a vest and that his pants were held by both a belt and suspenders.
Clem Gallagher said, “There’s Rufus now. Why don’t you ask him how much we care what happens to Orvil Kettle? You can kill the sonofabitch for all we care. We’re content to have your ass. Now, I’ll tell you what you can do. Just as careful as you can, step down off that horse. Don’t you make no sudden move. Before you do, I want you to reach down and get ahold of your carbine with the one hand, get hold of it by the stock, pull it out, and let it fall to the ground. After that, you dismount real careful and keep both your hands in the air.” As he finished his remarks, Clem Gallagher slowly drew his revolver and pointed it at Longarm. He said, “Now is that clear?”