Longarm and the Train Robbers Read Free Page A

speed.
    "We've done it,"
Longarm declared loudly.  "We've crested the summit!"
    "Are you sure?"
Miss Noble asked.
    "He's right," the
banker said, beaming.  "I've been over this stretch a hundred
times.  There is no question about it.  We've crested and are now
on the downhill run."
    "But isn't that
just as dangerous?" another passenger asked.  "I mean, what if we
were to lose our brakes?"
    "There is no
chance of that," an older man wearing bib overalls and work boots
declared.  "I worked on a railroad for twenty years back in
Ohio.  Our brakes aren't going to fail."
    Everyone except
Eli Wheat seemed much relieved.  Studying his wedge-shaped face
with his hooked nose and deep-set eyes, Longarm said, "Looks like
we're going to make Cheyenne after all.  Another two hours at the
most."
    Eli turned and
stared right through him.  "Don't bet your life on it,
Deputy."
    "What is that
supposed to mean?"
    Eli smiled.  "It
means that a lot can happen in two hours and this blizzard is
getting worse, not better."
    Longarm stared at
the whipping snow curtain.  He could hear the intensity of the
storm grow and he knew that Eli was right.  The ride down from
this high summit was risky even under the best of circumstances,
and these were the worst of circumstances.
    Miss Noble turned
around and favored Longarm with what he judged to be an
embarrassed smile.  "I... I couldn't help but overhear your
conversation about those two people that your prisoner attacked
in Denver."
    "Then you know
that he killed the woman."
    "Yes," she said in
a sad voice.  "I heard that.  And I guess that I do owe you an
apology."
    "Apology
accepted," Longarm said.  "And I probably shouldn't have grabbed
Eli by the throat and tried to throttle him into
silence."
    "Damn right you
shouldn't have!" Eli spat out.
    "Shut up," Longarm
ordered.
    Martha Noble
sighed.  "I will be oh so glad when we reach
Cheyenne."
    "I suppose that
you have family waiting for you there?"
    "No.  I'm not
married.  I was once but, well... it didn't work out."
    "i'm
sorry."
    "I'm not.  My
husband was not a nice man.  He wasn't a murderer or anything,
but he had no character."
    Longarm nodded as
if to say he understood.
    "Marshal, will you
be staying long in Cheyenne?"
    "Only as long as
necessary.  I'll put Eli up in the sheriff's jail, wait for the
first train south, then we'll be on our way to
Denver."
    "I see," Miss
Noble said.  "And if-"
    Martha Noble never
finished her sentence for, in the next moment, their coach
lurched violently to the side and lifted.  Martha screamed and
Longarm grabbed the arm of his seat as the entire train
tilted.
    Eli raised his
handcuffs and tried to claw out Longarm's eyes.  But the coach
tottered and before Eli could reach Longarm, it began a sickening
roll.
    The sound of Miss
Noble screaming in Longarm's ace did not drown out an explosion
somewhere up ahead.  Was it perhaps an avalanche?
    Longarm reached to
grab Miss Noble as she left her feet, but then he was flying too
as the coach began to tumble down the mountainside.  He lost
consciousness as the sound of tearing metal and splintering wood
filled his ears like a roar of a killer Kansas
tornado.

CHAPTER
2
    Longarm awoke
slowly to the moan of the icy mountain wind and the anguished
cries and pleas for help of the surviving passengers.  He was
aware of movement within the overturned coach, and when he tried
to raise himself to his hands and knees, a shooting pain radiated
across the back of his head.
    He gritted his
teeth, fighting to remain conscious.  Light was almost
nonexistent inside the coach, and Longarm could not distinguish
anything. Close beside him a woman groaned and then cried
softly.  Longarm reached out to comfort her.
    "Ma'am," he
whispered, suddenly aware of the intense cold and blowing snow. 
"Ma'am, it's going to be all right.  There will be help on the
way."
    "Why is it so
dark?"
    Longarm recognized
Miss Noble's voice.  "Maybe we're covered by snow. Maybe