Longarm and the Colorado gundown

_{“Personally I don’t see that there has t’ be any conflict, mister. Mister ... ?” .}

_{“Delacoutt,” he said quickly. “Ames Delacoutt.” He extended a hand to shake. Longarm introduced himself,}

_{although that wasn’t really necessary, as Delacoutt already had said.}

_{“Anyhow, Mr. Delacoutt—”}

_{“Ames. Please. There is no reason we should be at odds, Deputy. Please call me Ames.”}

_{“All right, Ames, as I was sayin’, there’s no reason we have t’ sniff assholes an’ snarl. You see, there’s no danger from those Utes. I know you’ve been filled with all kinds of wild tales on the subject, but I’m here to tell you that once I get those people out of whatever confinement your local law has put them in, the first thing they’ll want t’ do is get the hell away from here. This time of year they’ll be heading down to the flat country anyhow. They got no desire to stay up here. Won’t want to come back till late fall. An’ then they won’t be wanting to bother you. Those people are like most any others, Ames. Do you leave them alone an’ treat them with decency, they’ll give you the same right back. They’ll leave you be and not be a bother to anybody.” “Your opinion is not universal, Deputy.”}

_{“Neither is good sense, Ames. Which ain’t to say that it shouldn’t be, just that it isn’t.”}

_{“Leaving the question of the Indians aside for the moment, Deputy, we were hoping we could, um, prevail upon you to help us solve our robbery problem.”}

_{Longarm puffed on the cigar Ames Delacoutt had given him. It was without doubt one of the finest he had ever had the pleasure of tasting. “Was there any mail taken in the robbery, Ames?”}

_{The man frowned. “Not that I am aware of. Is that important?”}

_{“Does your railroad have a contract to carry mail?” Delacoutt broke eye contact with Longarm and began peering at his fingernails. *}

_{“What is it that you’d rather not tell me, Mr. Delacoutt?” “The line doesn’t, well, it doesn’t actually have a charter yet. And no mail contract, of course.”}

_{“I see.” And he did. No charter, therefore no insurance coverage. These boys were taking the whole sting from}

_{that robbery. “I hate t’ be the one t’ tell you ... though I suspect you already know it... but no federal law was broken in that robbery. This is something for your county law to handle.”}

_{“The county seat is Silver Creek.”}

_“So?”

_{“Silver Creek people are not interested in Snowshoe’s problems. The county sheriff was told about the robbery. We haven’t seen a deputy up here yet.”}