Longarm #431 Read Online Free Page A

give the fellow another.
    Then he walked over to the belligerent man and coldcocked him with a sudden right cross.
    Longarm looked down at the unconscious man lying at his feet, looked at the fellow’s drinking partner, and said, “I’ve had a hard night, mister, an’ I’m not feeling myself at the moment. Tell him that when he wakes up, will you?”
    Then Longarm turned and walked out in search of a saloon where a man could drink in peace.

Chapter 12
    He had lunch at Buck Walters’s café. It was just as satisfying as the breakfast had been. Then he idled along the street, peering into windows and poking among aisles of goods.
    As the day progressed the presence of townspeople increased until Crowell City was actually busy. Not busy the way Denver can be but busy enough for a small mining town tucked away amid the peaks and the canyons of the backcountry.
    Longarm avoided the saloon where he had that bit of trouble earlier in the day. By five o’clock in the afternoon he was about on his last legs. He was tired after walking all night and getting more and more cranky as time wore on.
    Finally he had had enough. He turned and headed back toward his hotel, figuring to turn in for an early night and not even bother with supper.
    â€œYou, you son of a bitch,” he heard from behind his back.
    â€œYou sucker punched me, damn you,” the man with the loud mouth accused. “You couldn’t o’ done any such of a thing if I’d been expecting it.”
    Longarm had really had quite enough of the man. He stopped, spun around, and headed back toward the fellow, who was now flanked by two rather large friends. All three of them looked like they had spent the day pouring shots down their throats.
    â€œAll right,” Longarm snarled. “Now what? You want to tangle? You’d best think twice about it ’cause I am
not
in a very good mood for your kind of bullshit right now.”
    â€œYou won’t do anything this time, asshole,” the fellow said. “This time I’m looking straight at you. I know your kind. You are yellow through and through, cocksucker.”
    Longarm hauled off and coldcocked him once again with a sudden right hand that came out of nowhere and wound up about three inches the other side of the belligerent’s jaw.
    For the second time that day the man went down, out cold and crumpling to the ground.
    Longarm looked at his two companions. “Are you here t’ carry the body home? Or do you want t’ try me?”
    â€œMister, we got n . . . n . . . nothing against you. Timothy thought . . . he said . . . well, never mind what he said. Reckon we’ll pick him up and cart him off now.”
    The place they carted Timothy off to, Longarm noticed, was the same saloon they had been drinking in all day long.
    With a snort of disgust, Longarm resumed his walk back to the hotel where he had a soft bed just waiting for him to occupy it.

Chapter 13
    Longarm woke up groggy, his eyelids glued shut and his head aching. There was daylight streaming through the hotel room window. He sat up on the side of the bed and pondered would it be worthwhile to go downstairs for supper.
    Then he noticed the direction the sunlight came from and took out his Ingersoll. The reliable, railroad-grade pocket watch—it was a wonder Nic hadn’t stolen that from him; but then she probably had not had a chance to get around to it when he came to—informed him that it was 10:27. And with sunshine showing outside the window, that pretty much had to be the time of morning. He had slept the clock around and then some.
    After all that sleep he would have expected to feel fully rested and eager to go. As it was, he felt pretty much like shit.
    He stood up and groaned a little. His feet were hurting more than ever, and all he had to put on them were the new socks and borrowed carpet slippers.
    â€œLordy!” he