Longarm and the Great Divide Read online

  Choose Your Weapon . . .

  The prisoner lashed out with his knife blade, swinging and slashing crazily. It must have been the way he attacked those men in the saloon. Longarm did not want to wind up the same way—lying on the saloon floor. Not only did he not want to, he had no intention of it.

  He sidestepped another swing of the knife blade and went for his Colt.

  The sound of the big .45’s muzzle blast filled the small jail building and momentarily destroyed Longarm’s hearing.

  A lead slug driven by forty grains of black powder struck the farmer in the brisket and knocked him to his knees.

  The man looked up at Longarm. His mouth formed a wide O but no sound came out.

  He looked down at the knife he still held in his right hand. Then he toppled forward on top of the weapon.

  DON’T MISS THESE ALL-ACTION WESTERN SERIES FROM THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  THE GUNSMITH by J. R. Roberts

  Clint Adams was a legend among lawmen, outlaws, and ladies. They called him . . . the Gunsmith.

  LONGARM by Tabor Evans

  The popular long-running series about Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long—his life, his loves, his fight for justice.

  SLOCUM by Jake Logan

  Today’s longest-running action Western. John Slocum rides a deadly trail of hot blood and cold steel.

  BUSHWHACKERS by B. J. Lanagan

  An action-packed series by the creators of Longarm! The rousing adventures of the most brutal gang of cutthroats ever assembled—Quantrill’s Raiders.

  DIAMONDBACK by Guy Brewer

  Dex Yancey is Diamondback, a Southern gentleman turned con man when his brother cheats him out of the family fortune. Ladies love him. Gamblers hate him. But nobody pulls one over on Dex . . .

  WILDGUN by Jack Hanson

  The blazing adventures of mountain man Will Barlow—from the creators of Longarm!

  TEXAS TRACKER by Tom Calhoun

  J.T. Law: the most relentless—and dangerous—manhunter in all Texas. Where sheriffs and posses fail, he’s the best man to bring in the most vicious outlaws—for a price.

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  LONGARM AND THE GREAT DIVIDE

  A Jove Book / published by arrangement with the author

  Copyright © 2014 by Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for having an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

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  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ISBN: 978-0-515-15432-0

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-63495-0

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Jove mass-market edition / March 2014

  Cover illustration by Milo Sinovcic.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

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  Contents

  ALL-ACTION WESTERN SERIES

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 1

  “We’ll take the Denver and Rio Grande down to Colorado Springs, then an omnibus over to Manitou. I’ve already wired ahead for a room at Bailey’s. It’s a bed-an’-breakfast. Very nice. Come evening we’ll eat on the pavilion at this French restaurant I know there. It’s built beside the creek. You can hear the water chuckle over the rocks. They went an’ placed rocks in the creek bed just for the sound, an’ it’s nice, no question about that. An’ the food?” Custis Long rolled his eyes and smiled. Then he leaned a little closer and licked Deborah’s left nipple.

  “Then come morning, we’ll send a boy over to the stable, tell them t’ send a buggy for us. They’ll drive us through what they call Garden of the Gods. You’ll understand why when you see it.” He sucked briefly on the left nipple, then switched his attentions to the other pink protrusion. “Beautiful,” he said. “Prettiest damn tits in all of Colorado.”

  “Have you looked at all of them to qualify yourself to make that statement?” Deborah teased.

  “Almost,” he said with a laugh. “I’m workin’ on getting a gander at the rest of ’em.”

  “What time will you pick me up tomorrow?” Deborah asked as she nuzzled the side of his neck and poked her tongue into his ear.

  “’Bout nine,” he said, reaching for her bush and sliding a finger into her. “The train leaves at ten forty-five, so that gives us plenty o’ time to drive to the station.”

  Deborah wrapped the fingers of her right hand around his cock. She squeezed affectionately and slipped her tongue into his mouth. “Oh, but that’s tomorrow,” she whispered, pulling away an inch or so. “Right now . . . more interesting . . .”

  An hour or so later, Long left the lady’s bed. He stood and stretched to his full six-foot-plus height. Ran a hand over his dark brown hair and smoothed the points of his thick, handlebar mustache.

  It always amazed
him that the ladies seemed to find him attractive. He did not consider himself to be particularly handsome with his golden brown eyes and craggy features.

  He was lean, with a horseman’s narrow hips and long, powerful legs set beneath broad shoulders.

  Long dressed quickly in brown corduroy trousers and a checked shirt, then sat on the edge of Deborah’s bed to pull on black, calf-high cavalry boots. He stood and stamped his feet to settle them into the leather, then buckled his gun belt on, the double-action .45 Colt rigged for a cross draw just to the left of his belt buckle.

  He buttoned his vest and reached for his flat-crowned, brown Stetson hat before bending down to give Deborah a good-night kiss. “Nine o’clock,” he reminded her.

  “I’ll be ready. You can count on me, dear.”

  “Good girl,” he said with an affectionate pat on her ass.

  The deputy United States marshal let himself out and hailed a hansom cab to take him back to his boardinghouse near Cherry Creek in Denver, Colorado.

  When he got into his room and lighted his bedside lamp he found an envelope that had been slipped beneath his door.

  “Shit,” he muttered aloud when he read the contents.

  EMERGENCY. LEAVE CANCELLED. COME IN.

  There was no signature but he recognized the scrawled initials as belonging to his boss, United States marshal William Vail. That meant the note had been written some time after the marshal’s chief clerk left for the night.

  Emergency, it said. If Billy Vail was calling it that, then it damn sure was an emergency. Billy was not much given to hysterics. The boss was no pencil-pushing political appointee. He was a former Texas Ranger and a salty gent when it came to gunfire. And if he said something was an emergency, well, Longarm was prepared to believe it.

  He stripped and sat on the side of his bed. He was tired but before sleeping took the time to clean his revolver and replace the cartridges in it with ammunition fresh from a new box. Billy Vail’s emergencies tended to need the application of hot lead to resolve them, and Longarm wanted to be prepared for whatever this one required.

  In the morning he headed for the office early. He did not give a thought to Deborah and his plan to take her away for a long weekend, did not even remember her until the day was half gone, long after that nine o’clock promise to meet.

  Chapter 2

  Longarm was at the office in the Federal Building on Colfax Avenue by seven, so early that Henry was not yet at his desk. But Billy Vail was, bent over his desk with papers spread out before him. Vail looked up in surprise when his best deputy walked in at that hour; Longarm was late more often than not. And now he was coming in at that hour.

  “What are you doing here so early?” the boss asked.

  “Your note said it was an emergency. So what’s up?” Longarm asked in return.

  “Oh, I didn’t mean . . . I’m sorry if I misled you there. I didn’t mean like an immediate, um, emergency sort of emergency. I mean something has come up and everyone else is already out on other assignments, so I have to postpone your leave.” Vail gave him a rather sheepish smile. “Sorry, Custis.”

  “Hell, Billy, if I’d knowed that I would’ve slept another hour or so.” Longarm plopped into one of the pair of armchairs arranged in front of Vail’s desk. “So what is this nonemergency emergency o’ yours?”

  Vail shuffled through a slim stack of papers, found the one he wanted, and pulled it out.

  “This came in from a town called Valstone, Wyoming Territory. Frankly I’m not familiar with the community, but they are requesting federal assistance with their local law enforcement. That is entirely within their rights. Apparently they are not capable of handling whatever the problem is up there. They don’t specify exactly what that problem is, but they are asking that a company of deputy marshals be sent as quickly as possible.”

  Billy stood and turned to peer out of the window behind his desk. “Like I told you,” he said without looking around, “everyone else is already out on assignment. I know we owe you your accumulated vacation days, and I hate to ask this of you, but . . . I need for you to delay your time off. Go to this Valstone place. See what their problem is and take care of it, please, Custis.”

  Please, Longarm thought. If the boss was saying “please,” then it must be serious.

  There was no question of if he would comply with the request. For one thing, it was his duty, plain and simple. For another—and more important—if Billy Vail asked it, Custis Long would do it. He would walk through fire if that was what the boss wanted of him.

  “You don’t know what their problem is?” he asked.

  Vail turned around to face Longarm and shook his head. “No, Custis, I don’t. But Wyoming is a territory of the United States of America, and we are charged with preserving the laws of this country. Further, any duly incorporated town, village, or city within the bounds of the country can ask for our assistance. Which these folks have. Now it is up to us to help them.”

  “Any idea where it is or how I’m t’ get there?” Longarm asked.

  Vail shrugged. “I was hoping you knew of it.”

  “I don’t.” He grinned. “But I reckon I will know soon enough.”

  Longarm stood and stretched, yawning. “Seein’ as how this particular emergency ain’t as needful as an orphanage burnin’ down, I think I’ll go have me some breakfast before I grab my gear an’ head up to Wyoming. The boys at the post office in Cheyenne oughta know how I can find Valstone since they’ll be directing mail to it. Wherever the hell it is.”

  “Thank you for doing this, Custis,” Billy said.

  Longarm grabbed his hat and settled it onto his head. He laughed. “I’ll let you know if I need the rest o’ this company o’ deputies, Billy.”

  “Right,” Vail said. “Just tell me how many you need. I’ll be sure to send them. Dozens if you need that many.”

  “Excuse me now, Boss. I got work t’ do. An’ grub t’ surround.” He turned and ambled toward the door at a pace much slower and more relaxed than his arrival had been.

  Chapter 3

  The post office in Cheyenne was a block and a half from the Union Pacific railroad depot. Longarm left his gear with the station agent at the depot and walked over to the post office. He got there in the middle of the afternoon and asked for the postmaster.

  “Do you have an appointment?” the mail clerk asked in return.

  “No. I just got in from Denver an’ need t’ see the gentleman,” Longarm said.

  “Sorry. Mr. Branscomb only sees people by appointment. If you want to ask for an appointment, I have a form you can fill out and mail in. Would you like a form, sir?”

  Longarm sighed. And pulled out his wallet, flipping it open to display his badge. “This is official business, an’ I shouldn’t need no damn appointment for that.”

  The clerk scowled. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? Mr. Branscomb’s office is in the back. Here. I’ll show you.”

  Branscomb turned out to be a portly fellow probably in his sixties with a fringe of white hair rimming a completely bald pate. He did not look terribly busy. But then Longarm admitted that he did not know much about the business of moving and delivering mail, so it was possible that Branscomb was doing exactly what he was supposed to.

  “Come in, Deputy. Sit down. What can I do for you?”

  “I need to get to this Valstone place,” Longarm told him, “an’ I don’t have the least idea where it is. What I’m hoping . . . and assuming . . . is that you can point me to it.”

  Branscomb looked up at the clerk who had brought Longarm to see him. “Get Robert Bortz for me, Lewis.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  To Longarm, Branscomb said, “Bortz is in charge of distribution after the mails come in off the trains. He will know where Valstone is, I can assure you, deputy.”

  Bortz was a small m
an in his forties or thereabouts. He wore spectacles and sleeve garters. When Longarm’s request was put before him, Bortz frowned. “Valstone, you said?”

  “That’s right.” Longarm spelled it for him.

  Bortz shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know of any such place.”

  “But this letter said . . .”

  “Was there a postmark?”

  It was Longarm’s turn to shake his head. “I didn’t see the envelope. Marshal Vail showed me the letter but not the envelope.”

  “Well, someone has certainly made a mistake, Deputy. I am familiar with every post office in the territory of Wyoming, and I can assure you there is none called Valstone.”

  “That’s damn strange,” Longarm said.

  “Do know where this Valstone is supposed to be?” Bortz asked.

  “Not really,” Longarm said. “Out on the grass, I think. At least that was the impression my boss had. An’ in the east.”

  Bortz shook his head again. “No, sir. No Valstone. The closest name I can think of is Valmere, though some pronounce it Valmer. Valmere is a small office out on the prairie. Mail service once a week. There is, come to think of it, a town in Nebraska close by Valmere. That is Stonecipher. I don’t know much about it except that it is close to Valmere. Mail going to Stonecipher can be routed through Valmere. Most unusual, but that is the directive we received.”

  “Does that help you, deputy?” Branscomb asked.

  “T’ tell you the truth, I don’t know if it does.” He looked at Bortz and asked, “D’you know how I can get to this Valmere place?”

  “Not really, but I can tell you which stagecoach line carries the mail pouches there. Will that help?”

  Chapter 4

  “No, sir, the way it works,” the stage line supervisor explained, “we carry the mail pouch for Valmer once a week on Thursdays. The postmaster for Valmer sends a wagon to meet our coach. Our driver transfers the bag to the Valmer wagon, and that’s the end of our responsibility. I don’t know where this Valmer actually is. Somewhere east of our line. I’m pretty sure about that, but exactly where . . . ?” The man shrugged. ”. . . I wouldn’t know.”