Longarm and the Yuma Prison by Tabor Evans Page A

down, my life and that of Jessica will always be in danger. Even from atop Prison Hill, deals are made and money changes hands. Lang has a lot of money and a lot of people that owe him favors. Sooner or later, he would kill Jessica and me so we’ve decided to move to Santa Fe when this is all past.”
    â€œThere is a small item of immediate concern,” Longarm said.
    â€œAnd that would be?”
    â€œToday is Monday and the marshal has ordered me to leave town on the train.”
    â€œYou’ll have to decide whether or not you are going to do what he wants,” Hamilton said. “And to be quite honest, Jessica and I will understand given all that’s happened here if you board that train and never look back.”
    â€œPlease excuse me for a moment. I need to think about this.”
    â€œTake your time,” Jessica said. “And remember this . . . you owe me nothing. I . . . I am sorry about what happened and . . .”
    â€œIt’s all right,” Longarm said. He exited the house and stood on the porch while he thought hard and then he sat down in one of the chairs and studied the hot and dusty little street. There wasn’t much moving around or going on this morning and he could see that this was a nice, quiet, and humble little neighborhood.
    He’d never been run out of any town, not even one as sun-blasted and desolate as Yuma. And there were good, hardworking people living here under a corrupt judge and marshal and a man he had yet to meet named Mitch Lang.
    But how could he guarantee the newlyweds that he could keep them alive until after Tom Ray was set free from the Yuma penitentiary? Or how could he guarantee that he could keep Albert Dodd or Carl Wittman alive, either, for that matter?
    And what would happen when the train was ready to leave in a few hours and he was not there with his bags packed and the marshal and his deputies were standing in wait?
    Well,
Longarm thought,
today is likely to be even more interesting than yesterday . . . and that was saying something. So I think I’m just going to stay here and see this trouble through or else I’ll always regret leaving a good lawman to die in a bad prison.
    Having made his decision, Longarm stepped back inside and said, “I’ve never been run out of a town in my life and I don’t see any point in letting it happen today. So let’s play the hand out and see if we can get your brother to come over on a fast train and make sure that justice is served.”
    Jessica jumped to her feet and hugged his neck, crying with happiness. Longarm breathed in her familiar perfume and felt the soft mounds of her lovely breasts pushing hard against his chest.
Much better,
he thought
,if the lovely Mrs. Hamilton had rewarded him with a simple “thank you.”

Chapter 15
    Longarm went back to the hotel, shaved, bathed, and had an excellent breakfast. He strolled into the hotel’s clean and comfortable little lobby and bought a copy of the
Yuma Daily News
from the desk clerk, then he found a comfortable chair facing the front door and began to read the weekly paper. There wasn’t much in the way of news, just some ads and two obituaries. Someone had ripe watermelons for sale and the local churches were advertising salvation. There was a marriage, the account of a man’s dog being run over by a buggy, and a small fire that the town’s volunteer fire department managed to squelch before it did major damage.
    Two city councilmen were running for reelection, but they were facing no opposition, and the editor of the paper made a good argument that more of the town’s citizens ought to get involved in politics. The school year was over and the teacher had resigned so the city fathers were looking to hire a fall replacement at the munificent sum of thirty dollars a month and a little house attached to the school building that needed serious