Longarm and the Train Robbers by Tabor Evans Read Free Book Online Page A

having a very difficult time with that decision, but I'm
sure that they will make the right choice.  You see, they both
have suffered investment losses and don't have much cash on
hand."
    "I wish you a good
start on your new life," Longarm said before kissing her and then
turning on his heel and marching on down the
boardwalk.
    "I'll be waiting
for you!" she called.
    When Longarm
reached the telegraph office, there was a telegram from his boss
that read: GET THE BASTARDS DEAD OR ALIVE.  Billy had also wired
a check for two hundred dollars, which told Longarm better than
words that he was supposed to stay out on the trail no matter how
long it took to bring Eli Wheat and the train-robbing gang to
justice.
    "Your boss sounds
pretty upset," the telegraph operator said.  "I never got a
telegraph like that before."
    "Marshal Vail
means business, all right," Longarm agreed.
    A few minutes
later he collected the cash at the bank, and then went to collect
his horse.  It was nearly noon before Longarm was ready to
ride.
    "I hope you shoot
them," Bob said as Longarm mounted the sorrel.  "I hope you kill
every last one."
    "My job is to take
them alive, if possible, and bring them to trial."
    "If you do that,"
the liveryman said, "I'll come down to Denver to watch them dance
on the gallows."
    "You'd be
welcome," Longarm said as he reined his horse west and put it
into a gallop toward the nearby Laramie Mountains.
    It was late
afternoon and the snow was almost gone when Longarm rode the
tough sorrel gelding up to the site of the train wreck.  Union
Pacific crews were everywhere cleaning up debris and searching
for more bodies.  Jim Allen saw Longarm, and came over to greet
him.
    "More bodies?"
Longarm asked.
    "Two.  I think we
have them all now.  It's a wonder that everyone wasn't
killed."
    "Yeah."  Longarm
glanced up the line toward the summit.  "Did you see any sign of
an explosion?"
    "I haven't had
time to look.  All my attention has been down the side of this
mountain.  That big locomotive will rest in that gulch
forever."
    "Let's take a look
up the track and see if we can find out why it derailed," Longarm
said, reining up-slope.
    He rode about two
hundred yards back up the track, and dismounted to stare at the
great pit where dynamite had exploded to twist the tracks like
hairpins.
    "Holy cow!" Allen
said, catching up.  "They must have used a barrel of
dynamite."
    "nat's right,"
Longarm said.  "They weren't scrimping, that's for sure. And they
brought a wagon along to carry off whatever they could find,
including the safe in the mail car in case they couldn't blast it
open."
    "At least it
should be easy tracking them," the railroad supervisor offered
hopefully.
    Longarm handed the
sorrel's reins to Allen and began to study the signs. He saw boot
marks and cigarette butts and plenty of horse tracks just
up-slope and behind a pile of rocks.
    "They didn't need
to hide, but they must have been trying to get out of the weather
as they waited for the train."
    "I wish they'd
have frozen solid," Allen spat out.
    Longarm spent
another fifteen minutes studying signs.  There wasn't a lot to
see because the snow had covered the ground, then melted, leaving
everything indistinct.  He wasn't even sure how many men had been
involved.
    "You find anything
real important?" Allen asked.
    "Afraid
not."
    "Too bad.  Looks
like they had a wagon that should be plenty easy to
follow."
    Longarm's eyes
followed the wagon tracks.  He was very sure that he would find
the wagon abandoned somewhere up in the mountains.  Furthermore,
he was expecting that the tracks of the horsemen he followed
would splinter into small groups.
    "I've got about an
hour of daylight left is all," Longarm said.  "Best make use of
it."
    "Good luck,
Deputy.  I wish there was something that I could do to help you. 
There must be more lawmen coming."
    "I prefer to work
alone," Longarm said.  "But you can bet that railroad detectives,
Pinkerton agents, and other