Longarm and the Colorado gundown

_{“It was just curiosity. Nothing personal.” He’d begun to suspect, though, that Lawyer Able was much less interested in the welfare of her clients than she might have been. Otherwise how could she have lost them in the first place? And once they were lost, how could she not be ranting and raving and demanding a confrontation with the police chief and town fathers down in Snowshoe? As it was, fancy sentiments notwithstanding, she seemed content to sit there in the sunshine like they were on a picnic instead of a mission of justice.}

_{“I do not appreciate that sort of curiosity, Deputy.”}

_{“I’m sorry,” he lied.}

_{She sniffed. “Very well then. Shall we start down now?”}

_{“In a minute.” He took a slow loop around the crudely constructed stockade, which he guessed had been recently built for the purpose of containing the Utes, as there wasn’t any reason to put such a rig around a mine.}

_{“What are you doing?”}

_{“Looking for sign. See if I can track along behind them.”}

_{“Really? Can I watch?” She sounded interested in that, and came bouncing over to join him. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything for her to see.}

_{“This is lousy country to try an’ track in,” he explained. “It’s all either rock or gravel, an’ neither one o’ them will take a print. Besides, what with all the wagons that rolled in an’ outta here when the mine was operating, there just ain’t any way to tell what’s new and what’s old. Assuming the people were moved by wagon, that is. If they walked away I’d never be able to find sign of it, not on ground this hard. Not unless one o’ them was leaving a deliberate trail to show where they’d gone.” He sighed. “But I wanted t’ be sure there wasn’t nothing to see before we start back down.”}

_{“We’ll go back now, Longarm, and have lunch. Then we can find Boo or the mayor and get this all cleared up.” “Huh, uh.”}

_{“Pardon me?”}

_{“What we’ll do, Counselor, is go down an’ find the police chief or the mayor or whoever an’ get this business cleared up. Then we’ll think ’bout lunch.”}

_{She gave him a pouting look, which he ignored. “Come along, Aggie.”}

_{He helped her onto the driving box of the cart, then climbed up beside her. She wheeled the gray back in the direction from which they’d just come and set it into a slow lope, its fancy purple plume bobbing with all the monotonous regularity of a metronome. Longarm folded his arms and closed his eyes, trying to catch up on a little more of the rest he’d missed out on the night before.}