Longarm and the Colorado gundown

_{And Bevvy would find plenty more charges to drop on them at the local level. Train robbery would only be for openers.}

_{There was, though, at least one man missing from the group at the table here. One chair sat empty with a stack of papers in front of it and a fat cigar left lying in an ashtray there to drift smoke into the stuffy air inside the room.}

_{“Where’s Monroe?” Longarm asked.}

_“Who?”

_{“Never mind. Boo, you and your people take care of these prisoners. I’ll go find Monroe.”}

_{“You think he ran out?”}

_{Longarm grinned. “What I’d bet is that he went out back to take a piss. Bad timing is the only reason we didn’t pull him in with the rest of ’em.”}

_{“I can come with you.”}

_{“No, you and your boys get the cuffs on this bunch. I’ll bring Monroe in. And enjoy it, to tell you the truth. Only met the man one time, but even then I felt like I’d disliked him for years.”}

_{“We’ll see you at the jail,” Bevvy said.}

_{Longarm took the hallway toward the back of the saloon building in which the good old boys of Tipson had been meeting, then went downstairs. It was the logical direction anyone looking for an outhouse would take.}

_{A path led from the back door to a one-holer. The saloon management had thoughtfully provided a lantern set on a post halfway between the building and the shitter so patrons wouldn’t have to stumble or feel their way along.}

_{Longarm checked the door of the outhouse. It was latched.}

_{“Keep your britches buttoned, damn it. I’m almost done.” Longarm smiled. He recognized the voice. It was the hotshot railroad boss Edgar Monroe, all right. Hotshot in his own opinion anyhow. Longarm happened to think somewhat less of him than that.}

_{“Take your time.” Longarm stepped back and waited. The wait seemed like a very long time, although it probably was no more than a few minutes. After a bit he heard a deep sigh and the creaking of boards as Monroe’s weight shifted on the seat. “Ah.”}

_{There was another wait, shorter this time, and the sound of the bolt being drawn.}

_“Next.”

_{Monroe stepped out of the outhouse. And found himself facing Longarm.}

_{“Surprise.”}

_“You!”

_{“It’s my pleasure an’ my duty, mister, to place you under arrest.”}

_“No.”

_“Wrong.”

_{“You can’t.”}

_{“Sure I can.”}

_{“I won’t let you.”}

_{“Sure you will. Now turn around like a good fella an’ put your hands behind you.”}

_{“I’m not going to be dragged off like some common criminal.”}

_{“You’ll get used to it.”}

_{“We can talk about this. I’m rich, you know.” “Congratulations. Your wrists, please?”}