lot, just as I'm getting fond of a sweet little thing like you. But if you want to go steady as long as I'll be around Julesburg, it's jake with me, public or private. It's your reputation, not mine."
"Oh, you darling man!" But then, being a woman and thinking the same way, she said, "We'd better be discreet. It is a small, spiteful town. If you really still want me, I can sneak up to your room easy enough, late at night when all the gossips are asleep. But I don't think we ought to act too familiar in front of folk, do you?"
"It could cause talk. But what in thunder are we arguing about? I just told you I didn't give a hang one way or the other."
She said, "I know. If I asked you to take me to dinner at the depot diner, in front of God and everybody, would you?"
He said, "Sure. Why not?"
And she began to cry as she told him, "Oh, we couldn't! I'd never live it down. But you've no idea how nice and naughty and young you've made me feel by offering.
CHAPTER 8
They got back to Julesburg before sundown. Since she seemed more worried than he did about their wild fling, Longarm suggested they enter town separately and assured her he'd meet her later at the hotel, whether he'd have time to kiss her some more or not. She asked what he meant, and he explained that he meant to check the telegraph office in case the man he was after had turned up somewhere else. She looked so hurt that he promised, "I have to check out even if I have to leave, don't I? I can't wait to try those freshly oiled bedsprings, can you?"
She blushed and drove on ahead of him as he lit another smoke to give her a lead the village biddies might find acceptable.
As he rode in alone, he saw he had the main street all to himself. Despite the low sun and lengthening shadows it was still hot enough to bake potatoes in the road dust.
He rode Blue Boy around to the back of the hotel, unsaddled and rubbed him down, and left him in the stall, where Myrtle had already left more oats and water than the brute deserved.
He walked down the alley to a gap between the buildings and came out to the sleepy center of things to look about for a Western Union sign. He spotted one about where it should have been, near the depot, and strode over to it.
As he approached, two gents who'd been sitting and whittling in the shade of the office awning rose to greet him. Longarm sighed and said, "Aw, hell, why would even Billy Vail want to do a dumb thing like that?"
The two junior deputies from his home office were best known as Smiley and Dutch. The tall one, Smiley, was a morose, hatchet-faced breed who never smiled. It was his name. The shorter and stockier Dutch smiled all the time, even when he wasn't telling one of his endless dirty jokes. He was called Dutch because his German-American last name was so hard to pronounce they had all given up on it. Dutch didn't care. He said he only got sore when someone called him something dirty. He'd proven that more than once by slapping leather over something as mild as "bastard," and it was widely held he would gut-shoot a gent and drag him atop an ant pile to die slow for "son of a bitch."
As they shook, outside the Western Union, Smiley said, "There ain't no messages for you inside. We just asked. We figured you'd show up here sooner or later, though."
"Never mind how you hunted me down. Why in hell did they send you? I never asked for backup, no offense," Longarm said.
Dutch said, "Old Billy felt you might need some, anyway. Didn't you meet all them War Department assholes on the trail? We was told you'd headed out for Fort Halleck, and that was where they said they was headed, too."
Longarm said, "We must have missed each other as I was off the trail, heeding the call of nature. What about 'em? We already knew the army was after the same want."
Smiley said, "The boss sent us when he found out a short colonel called Walthers was coming up here, personal, to pick a fight with you. We made the same train as it was pulling out
"Oh, you darling man!" But then, being a woman and thinking the same way, she said, "We'd better be discreet. It is a small, spiteful town. If you really still want me, I can sneak up to your room easy enough, late at night when all the gossips are asleep. But I don't think we ought to act too familiar in front of folk, do you?"
"It could cause talk. But what in thunder are we arguing about? I just told you I didn't give a hang one way or the other."
She said, "I know. If I asked you to take me to dinner at the depot diner, in front of God and everybody, would you?"
He said, "Sure. Why not?"
And she began to cry as she told him, "Oh, we couldn't! I'd never live it down. But you've no idea how nice and naughty and young you've made me feel by offering.
CHAPTER 8
They got back to Julesburg before sundown. Since she seemed more worried than he did about their wild fling, Longarm suggested they enter town separately and assured her he'd meet her later at the hotel, whether he'd have time to kiss her some more or not. She asked what he meant, and he explained that he meant to check the telegraph office in case the man he was after had turned up somewhere else. She looked so hurt that he promised, "I have to check out even if I have to leave, don't I? I can't wait to try those freshly oiled bedsprings, can you?"
She blushed and drove on ahead of him as he lit another smoke to give her a lead the village biddies might find acceptable.
As he rode in alone, he saw he had the main street all to himself. Despite the low sun and lengthening shadows it was still hot enough to bake potatoes in the road dust.
He rode Blue Boy around to the back of the hotel, unsaddled and rubbed him down, and left him in the stall, where Myrtle had already left more oats and water than the brute deserved.
He walked down the alley to a gap between the buildings and came out to the sleepy center of things to look about for a Western Union sign. He spotted one about where it should have been, near the depot, and strode over to it.
As he approached, two gents who'd been sitting and whittling in the shade of the office awning rose to greet him. Longarm sighed and said, "Aw, hell, why would even Billy Vail want to do a dumb thing like that?"
The two junior deputies from his home office were best known as Smiley and Dutch. The tall one, Smiley, was a morose, hatchet-faced breed who never smiled. It was his name. The shorter and stockier Dutch smiled all the time, even when he wasn't telling one of his endless dirty jokes. He was called Dutch because his German-American last name was so hard to pronounce they had all given up on it. Dutch didn't care. He said he only got sore when someone called him something dirty. He'd proven that more than once by slapping leather over something as mild as "bastard," and it was widely held he would gut-shoot a gent and drag him atop an ant pile to die slow for "son of a bitch."
As they shook, outside the Western Union, Smiley said, "There ain't no messages for you inside. We just asked. We figured you'd show up here sooner or later, though."
"Never mind how you hunted me down. Why in hell did they send you? I never asked for backup, no offense," Longarm said.
Dutch said, "Old Billy felt you might need some, anyway. Didn't you meet all them War Department assholes on the trail? We was told you'd headed out for Fort Halleck, and that was where they said they was headed, too."
Longarm said, "We must have missed each other as I was off the trail, heeding the call of nature. What about 'em? We already knew the army was after the same want."
Smiley said, "The boss sent us when he found out a short colonel called Walthers was coming up here, personal, to pick a fight with you. We made the same train as it was pulling out
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