Longarm #398 : Longarm and the Range War (9781101553701) by Tabor Evans Read Free Book Online

wouldn’t think of charging you rent.”
    â€œThanks.” Longarm resolved to do something to help defray the cost of his keep while he was staying with the Tylers. Groceries, perhaps, or something else Nell would appreciate. He stood. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go find that buggy o’ yours an’ bring it around front when I have it hitched an’ ready.”

Chapter 14
    Longarm left Tyler’s sleek little chestnut mare tied to an iron post shaped to look like a jockey, although one whose paint was chipped and peeling. He helped Tyler out of the buggy and up the courthouse steps.
    â€œOver this way,” Tyler said, pointing toward a door that read COUNTY CLERK on the frosted glass panel. “My office is in the basement. One good-sized room and two small cells. Around back there’s an entrance from the outside. I’ll give you a key so you can come and go as you please.”
    Longarm opened the door to the clerk’s office and stood aside while Tyler made his way inside on the crutches.
    There were three men in the office, laboring over ledgers and piles of paper. Longarm had no idea what could possibly require the efforts of three clerical workers in a county as sparsely populated as McConnell . . . but then it sometimes seemed to him that the first order of business for any government agency was to expand itself. At the expense of its taxpayers. Apparently that rule was no different here than in Denver.
    â€œBenjamin, this is the gentleman I told you would be coming,” Tyler said.
    The oldest of the three workers, a slender man with thinning, gray hair, looked up from his ledgers and smiled. He rose and came to the counter, where he extended his hand. “Benjamin Laffler,” he said.
    â€œCustis Long,” Longarm said in return, taking the man’s hand to shake.
    â€œWhat can I do for you gents?” Laffler asked.
    â€œI want to swear Custis in as a McConnell deputy, Ben. We need for you to witness the oath and record it.”
    â€œCan we afford . . . ?”
    â€œHe will serve without pay,” Tyler cut in.
    Laffler said, “In that case, Long, welcome to our county. Wait just a moment while I fetch a Bible and we can do this.”
    Three minutes later, having affirmed his fealty, Longarm was a duly sworn officer of McConnell County, Wyoming Territory.
    â€œThere are some badges in my desk downstairs,” Tyler told him, “or you can just continue to use your own. Benjamin, do you have any extra keys to the sheriff’s office?”
    â€œI do. I’ll get one for you.” He turned away and went to the back of the room, to a file cabinet, where he began rummaging inside a lower drawer. A minute later he was back with a key for the new deputy.
    â€œDo you want to go down to your office?” Longarm asked when they were again in the hallway outside the clerk’s office.
    Tyler shook his head. “That would be too much, I think. I’d have to go down the steps outside then all the way around the building and down those steps too. It’s just . . . Not until I get off these damned crutches, if you don’t mind.”
    â€œMakes no nevermind t’ me, John, and in that case let’s get you home. I’ll beg one more cup o’ Nell’s good coffee and then go see what I can do toward having a saddle horse.”
    â€œFine,” Tyler said. When he was again settled onto the seat of the buggy, he grumbled, “These crutches might not be so bad except the damn things cut into my armpits no matter how Nell tries to pad them. Lordy, I will be glad when I can get rid of them.”
    He drove to his house and as close as he could get to the front gate, then said, “If you don’t mind taking it from here, this is the shortest way into the house.”
    â€œDon’t mind at all,” Longarm said.
    Longarm secured the mare to a hitching weight, then helped Tyler down from