Longarm - Longarm And The Double-Barrel Blowout Part 12

"No."

"Dammit, you had better try," Longarm gritted. "if you die on the way, I'll dump your body off and the coyotes will feast on it tonight."

It was a poor attempt at humor, but Dan managed a smile nonetheless. "I'll make it," he said. "What about food and water?"

"I'll pack all that I can on the two extra horses."

"I want you to poke around in these caves just a little more," Dan urged.

"For what?"

"I dunno. I just have a feeling that old Jimmy c.o.x must have had time to bury most of his Spanish gold coins. I've had little else to do but think since you left yesterday, and I believe that I have things figured."

"What things?"

"Where Jimmy would hide his gold coins."

"I'm listening," Longarm said.

"I think that he hid them in that second cave. You know, the one way back in this hillside."

"What makes you think so?"

"Because that's exactly where I'd hide them. And I'd bury them in the floor and then smooth it over with dust. Marshal, you need to check out that floor."

"It's too big to go over, and besides," Longarm replied, "I need to get you to a doctor."

"Ain't no real doctor in Wickenburg," Dan told him. "Just a tooth puller."

"Well," Longarm said, "there will be medicine and a better place for you to rest. Also, if you die, there's a still half-empty cemetery in Wickenburg and probably an undertaker who needs the cash."

Dan chuckled drily. "d.a.m.ned if you don't have a soft spot in your heart after all, Marshal!"

"I had better start preparing a travois for you," Longarm said. "Unless you can sit up in the saddle."

"Not a chance," Dan replied. "But first, I'd like you to go check out the floor of the second cave."

"You seem mighty persistent on this matter. Are you holding back some information on me?"

"No. But I prayed some on this matter and I do believe in the power of prayer."

"Don't tell me that G.o.d told you that's where Jimmy buried his treasure."

"All right," Dan confessed, "Jimmy did hint around about a second, deeper cave and that it was, to use his words, *worth taking a good look at' if anything happened to him. I just figure he said that to tell me where the Spanish treasure is buried."

Longarm's eyes widened. "Dammit, why didn't you tell me this before?!"

""Cause I was planning to find those hidden coins for myself and use them for charitable works. And, if you find them, I expect you to do the same."

"Some," Longarm agreed, "but not all."

"Most."

"Fair enough."

He left Dan and found a shovel, then Longarm crawled back into the second cave which he'd already found so interesting. Lighting a kerosene lamp, he started at one end of the cavern and worked his way to the other, moving very slowly back and forth on his hands and knees.

Longarm wasn't sure how he would know when he located a spot where Jimmy might have buried the gold coins. But less than an hour later, with his fingers brus.h.i.+ng back and forth across the dusty floor, he felt something unusual. Longarm froze for a moment, then he brushed the dust aside and saw that there was a large metal box whose top was buried just a fraction of an inch below the floor's uneven surface.

"Eureka!" he exclaimed, brus.h.i.+ng the dirt away and discovering an old treasure chest.

A moment later, he was prying up the lid and, sure enough, there were hundreds of Spanish gold coins gleaming up in his lamplight, pretty as an Arizona sunset.

"Holy Moses!" ]Longarm whispered, dipping his big hand into the treasure box and allowing the coins to slip between his fingers. "There must be five hundred of them!"

Longarm did not know what the coins were worth, but he expected it was in the tens of thousands of dollars, given their historical value. Even in terms of their pure gold weight, they were worth more money than he'd earn in many years.

"Jimmy. Jimmy," Longarm whispered, rubbing a particularly large coin balanced between his thumb and index finger. "I sure wish you were here with me now, to at least see that you didn't die entirely in vain."

Longarm used his knife to dig out the old Spanish treasure chest. It was somewhat rusted but still intact. He carried it back to Dan.

"So," the preacher said, "we found it!"

"Yes, take a good look."

Dan's eyes widened with surprise and pleasure when he saw how many coins were in the treasure box. Sniffling and then rubbing away a few tears, he said, "Do you realize how much good and charitable work this will pay for? Why, there are churches, schools, old hungry people and orphans whose lives will be changed by this treasure."

"I said I was going to take a a little of it for myself," Longarm reminded the preacher.

"Of course! And I would not have it any other way. After all, you risked your life for me and for this bounty. It would be only right, even if you are a federal marshal working in the line of duty."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Longarm asked with a sudden scowl.

"Oh, nothing! Nothing at all. It's just that a well, I sort of think that you are on the government payroll. I mean, you're getting paid every day we are here, aren't you?"

"Why sure! In the neighborhood of a whole d.a.m.ned dollar a day."

"Well, then, as a government servant, I just kind of thought that you might want to donate whatever little share you think you are due of this treasure to charity."

"You're wrong because I don't."

"Fine! Be that way." Dan smiled but without warmth. "So I guess now we need to get back to Wickenburg before we have any more visitors. Huh?"

"That's right."

"With me on a travois."

"Right again." Longarm came to his feet. "I'll start preparing for our trip out of this h.e.l.l. There's an old axe that the outlaws were using to chop wood. It's dull but I can use a few mining timbers for the long extensions on the travois. There's blankets and canvas aplenty to rig up for you to lie down upon."

"Then we're leaving soon?"

"At sundown," Longarm told the man. "Actually, I think I'll make two travois for the two extra horses to drag. You'll be on one and I'll pack out our food, water, and that Spanish treasure box on the other."

"What about the bodies?"

Longarm frowned. "I'll bury them under another rock slide. If you want to crawl over to them and say a few prayers, that's up to you. I don't care one way or the other. They wouldn't have given us a burial."

"I suppose not."

"I know not," Longarm said.

With that, he went and got the axe, which he used to cut four long timbers. They were made of cedar and hard as nails, so Longarm knew that they would serve well as travois poles. It took him less than an hour to complete both travois and then to grain and water the horses.

After that, he loaded the extra travois with as much water as he could, then food, and covered it all with a piece of gray canvas and lashed it down tight.

"All right, horses," he said. "We're going to hitch these travois up to your saddles and you're not going to give me any trouble. Is that clearly understood?"

The two horses proved to be calm and cooperative, but even at that, Longarm took no chances. In addition to keeping them tied to the sorrel's saddle horn, he hobbled them both until both had accepted the travois.

After that, Longarm dragged the bodies of the five outlaws over to another hillside and created another rock slide to cover them up forever. It was a dirty, gruesome job. Especially considering the giant that Dan had beheaded with a powerful blast from the big shotgun. Burying the dead this way was a trick that he had often used. With tons of loose shale over the bodies, they would never be found or disturbed by wild animals.

"You got *em buried, huh?"

"Yeah," Longarm said. "You want to give *em the last rites?"

"I guess not," Dan replied.

"Let's have ourselves something to eat and then get out of here," Longarm decided out loud. "This place is too familiar with the dead."

"I was thinking the same thing. Marshal, how many Spaniards do you think died here?"

"I have no idea."

"You couldn't tell anything from the bones?"

"I counted six different skulls, but it wouldn't surprise me if the coyotes had carried a whole lot more than that out of the caves and then scattered them out in the desert."

"I wonder what went wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Dan said, "that this must have been some important exploration party. Maybe a party set out by Coronado or some other important Spanish explorer."

"I have no idea," Longarm said. "I can't even imagine why they would have carried gold coins."

"To buy favors or peace from the hostile Indians they expected to come across, I'd guess."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Longarm said. "I wonder if the Indians had a role in their undoing."

"Probably."

Longarm looked closer at the old man. "Why do you say that?"

"Because," Dan reasoned, "if the Apache or whatever bunch that were in these parts at the time were friendly, they would have saved the Spaniards. They would have known how to survive and find water and whatever else they needed. But the fact that they didn't save the Spaniards tells me that they considered them to be enemies."

Longarm figured that made a lot of sense. He didn't know much about the history of exploration in the American Southwest, but he did know that the Spaniards had penetrated very deep into this country in search of the legendary Seven Lost Cities of Gold. They'd already plundered the Incan and Mayan cultures in Peru and Mexico and taken immense fortunes. No doubt their previous successes had convinced them that they would find even more riches in the Southwest. That expectation, however, had proved to be their fatal undoing. The Apache, Mojave, Pima, and other Arizona tribes were all as poor as church mice and not known to collect gold or silver.

"Marshal?"

"Yes?"

"Let's go. Help me onto that travois and let's get back to Wickenburg."

That would suit Longarm just fine. He still had a job to do concerning Hank Ba.s.s and knew that his boss, Billy Vail, would be more than a little upset because of this latest long absence of communication. Longarm decided to telegraph Billy as soon as he reached Wickenburg, then get right after Hank Ba.s.s. With luck, he'd track the outlaw leader down in a week, two at the most, and then wrap this whole b.l.o.o.d.y business up tight.

"Here you go," Longarm said, easing Dan onto the travois and then carefully tying him down with strips of leather.

"I don't need to be tied down."

"Sure you do," Longarm argued. "We're going over some real rough country. Country rough enough to bounce you off the travois. My eyes will be turned ahead, not behind watching out for you."

"Are you suggesting that I could bounce off and you'd never know it?"

"That's right. That could very easily happen and I'd be in such a hurry that I'd go miles before I discovered you were missing. That being the case, I doubt that I'd even bother to come back for you, Preacher."

Dan didn't fail to note the glint in Longarm's eyes and he wasn't a bit worried. "You just get in the saddle and head us for Wickenburg," he said. "I'll stay put on this thing."

"Fair enough," Longarm replied as he mounted the big sorrel and rode off, leading the two extra outlaw horses.

The sun was fading on the western horizon, and Longarm was full of admiration and even relief and grat.i.tude. He was sorry that his old friend Jimmy c.o.x was dead, probably tortured mercilessly before his sad end. But Jimmy's killers, with the sole exception of Hank Ba.s.s, had all paid the ultimate price with their own lives. Furthermore, all of the Spanish treasure would be used for charities. Longarm realized that, maybe except for a few coins, he'd give everything to Preacher Dan.

After all, he was a public servant. Underpaid, overworked but d.a.m.ned happy with his own humble role in life, unlike a lot of much wealthier men.

Chapter 15.

The trip back to Wickenburg was slow but happily uneventful. Longarm tried to pick the easiest trails, but there were many times when he was forced to cross dry arroyos and other obstacles which gave the badly injured preacher a very difficult time. But the old codger never once complained, and although he was very weak, he was obviously on the mend by the time that they arrived in Wickenburg very late one warm evening.

"Don't get the tooth puller!" Dan gritted. "Just get me to bed and maybe a little whiskey to thicken my blood."

"Sure," Longarm said with a wink, "but I never knew a drinking preacher before."

"And you probably never knew one as shot up as me," Dan grunted.