Longarm and the Colorado gundown

_{For a moment Monroe looked like he was going to throw a haymaker. But only for a moment. Perhaps he remembered that the last time he fought this tall deputy he’d lost the contest. Whatever the reason, he held himself stiff and ready for only that moment, and then subsided.}

_{“At least let me have a cigar first. We can ... talk ... while I smoke it.” Monroe reached inside his coat.}

_{Longarm opened his mouth to speak, to tell the idiot to keep his hands out where they could be seen.}

_{Too late.}

_{Monroe’s hand flashed with sudden speed, and a nickel- plated revolver appeared in his fist with a magician’s speed.}

_{The big man looked smug now. Superior. Lording it over the mere mortal who had dared to oppose Edgar Monroe’s wishes. As if he couldn’t believe that anyone would have had the temerity to even think he might oppose anyone as rich and as important as Edgar Monroe.}

_{Hell, Longarm couldn’t much believe it either. That anybody would be dumb enough to stand there and try to take him in a face-to-face draw like that. Stupid.}

_{The big Colt bellowed before Monroe’s little rimfire had time to speak.}

_{The two men were standing at devastatingly close range. At that distance the .44 slug had an impact that must have felt like Monroe stepped in front of one of his own trains.}

_{The bullet riding the tip of a lance of yellow fire slammed into Monroe’s chest with crushing force.}

_{It knocked him backward and spun him halfway around so that he was facing the other direction now. His momentum carried him on toward the outhouse he had just left. One tottering step and then another.}

_{He pitched forward and down. Face first.}

_{“Aw, shit,” Longarm said aloud as Monroe tumbled back inside the outhouse.}

_{The heavy body crashed down onto a much too flimsy seat. Wood splintered and broke with a loud crack, and Monroe fell with his torso hanging over the deep toilet sink.}

_{Hanging there only for an instant. Then sliding forward. And down.}

_{Longarm made a face.}

_{There was a splash, and a truly vile stench flowed from the outhouse in an almost visible wave. Longarm didn’t think he’d ever smelled anything quite that bad before. And if he had, he damn sure didn’t want to remember it now.}

_{The only things he could see of Edgar Monroe’s body now were the man’s shiny, polished shoes and his stocking- clad ankles.}

_{“I sure as hell hope you was dead before you went in there,” Longarm told the corpse in a soft voice. “Because 1 sure as hell ain’t gonna treat you like no drowning victim an' try to revive you.”}