Longarm and the Desert Rose by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

As the sky grew still lighter, Longarm began to be able to make out the mountains in the distance. It was difficult to tell how far away they were, especially with his eyesight a little fuzzy from all the punishment he had endured during the past eighteen hours. He thought the rounded, rocky peaks were getting closer, though. The group of riders ought to be reaching the edge of the desert before too much longer, he thought.

“Damn, I’ll be glad to get back to the ranch,” one of the men said. “I hope the chink’s got breakfast ready. It’s been so long since I et, my stomach thinks my throat’s been cut.”

“That can be arranged,” Culhane growled.

“Aw, I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, boss. I’m just hungry, that’s all.”

“Just hush, Oswald,” Culhane said wearily. He reined in his horse a little, dropping back to ride alongside Longarm.

There was enough light now for Longarm to be able to see the boss outlaw. Culhane was around thirty, Longarm judged, and good-looking with dark blond hair under a cream-colored Stetson. His range clothes were not flashy or expensive, but they were good quality, as were his saddle, gunbelt, and spurs. Whatever had motivated Culhane to become a rustler, it wasn’t poverty. The man’s ranch must have been fairly successful.

But some folks were like that, thought Longarm. Plenty was never enough. Even if they went along for years, seemingly satisfied with their lives, greed and discontent were still festering in them, and sooner or later it came out. Longarm had no idea what had finally brought out the villainy in Culhane, and he didn’t give a damn. It was enough that it was there.

“Look, my friend, I know you must be some sort of lawman,” Culhane said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have started asking questions around Castleton about those train holdups. I knew when I heard about what you were doing that the smart thing would be to get rid of you before you had a chance to find out anything. But I want to know who you work for, so I’ll know who to look out for in the future.”

Longarm didn’t say anything. Culhane’s persistent questioning had given him a couple of points to mull over, however. Culhane had just admitted being responsible for that ambush attempt in Longarm’s hotel room back in Castleton, a couple of nights earlier. How had he known that Longarm was poking around and asking questions about the rustling? Longarm had tried to remain inconspicuous when he arrived in Castleton, but he had talked to several people, including Sheriff Willard and Elizabeth. He knew neither of them could have tipped off Culhane. There was the hotel clerk, and old Alf, the hostler at Elizabeth’s livery stable. Longarm didn’t recall saying anything to either of them that would have made them overly suspicious of him if they were working for Culhane, but he supposed it was possible. Or maybe Culhane had instructed his agent in Castleton to report any stranger who showed up, because there probably weren’t that many.

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