Longarm and the Train Robbers (3 page)

Longarm lit
another match, shielding its flickering light from the hard,
blowing wind.  He took a longer second look, specifically
searching for his prisoner.  Eli Wheat was gone.  Longarm was
sure of it.  He was also sure that the approach of night would
soon drive the freezing temperatures to a killing low and that,
if he did not take measures to save not only himself but the
other passengers, they'd all be frozen solid before
morning.

"Deputy Long,
we've got to help these people!"

Longarm turned and
held the dying match up toward Miss Noble.  She had been cut up a
little by flying glass and appeared badly shaken.

Longarm's match
burned out, and he squeezed the woman's arm in a feeble attempt
to reassure her that all would be fine.  "Miss Noble, it's a
wonder that our stove didn't ignite and turn this coach into a
funeral pyre.  The stove must have been thrown outside and then
extinguished."

"I don't know. 
But it's freezing in here."

"I need some
light," Longarm told her.  "We have to find a lantern or we'll
never be able to help the injured."

"I think a lot of
them are dead!" the young woman exclaimed, her voice near the
breaking point.

"But we can't
worry about that.  We have to do what we can for those that can
still be saved.  Can you move around, Miss Noble?  Are your
legs..."

"They're
fine."

Longarm heard her
take a deep, steadying breath.  He was encouraged when she said,
"What can I do to help?"

"Let's get outside
and see what happened to the rest of the train. Perhaps there are
other coaches that fared better and that will offer
shelter."

"It's a miracle
that any of us are alive."

"We need a
doctor," Longarm said.

"That would be a
second miracle."

Taking the woman's
hand and forcing himself to ignore the pleading of injured and
confused passengers, Longarm struggled out through a window.  The
blizzard attacked him with demented vengence.  The snow sheeted
in horizontally, and visibility was less than ten
feet.

"I can't see
anything!" Miss Noble cried.

"Me neither,"
Longarm said, hanging onto the woman's hand.  "But we must find
out if anyone else survived.  We must find help!"

Lowering their
heads, Longarm and the woman struggled forward along the
overturned train.  They passed another coach which had broken
apart and was ominously silent.  Then a third coach loomed up and
Longarm saw what he believed to be a glow of light from its
interior.  This coach had come to rest in an almost upright
position.

"Stay with me!" he
hollered into the storm as he fought his way to the rear door of
the coach.  Doubling up his fists, he pounded on the door over
and over until it opened a crack.

"Let us in!" he
bellowed.

The door crashed
open.  Strong hands grabbed Longarm and Miss Noble and hauled
them inside.  A moment later, the door was jammed shut and
Longarm had to wipe ice from his eyelashes in order to see.  The
survivors of this coach had righted their stove, but not before
it had consumed an entire row of seats.  Now, they were feeding
the life-giving fire scraps from other chairs and trying to close
the broken windows with seat cushions and blankets.

Longarm had the
impression of being in a cluttered cave.  He guessed there were
two dozen passengers.  Some were in bad shape, but most eyed him
with astonishment.

"Who are you?" a
man finally asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm Deputy U.S.
Marshal Custis Long.  Is anyone here in charge?"

No one stepped
forward, but one man did say, "We lost about eight and two among
us have internal injuries.  We could sure use a
doctor."

"I know that.  Has
anyone gone in search of other survivors?  This might be the only
real shelter."

"I went up toward
the front of the train, but all the coaches were destroyed," a
big man in a heavy sheepskin lined coat answered.  "And the
locomotive wasn't anywhere around.  It must have rolled all the
way down the mountain."

"Miss Noble and I
crawled out of a coach two cars back," Longarm said. "The next
one back is demolished.  I doubt that anyone survived.  Our coach
has at least twenty people trapped inside.  I need able-bodied
volunteers to bring them here."

"Why, here!" a man
bellowed in anger.  "This is our coach.  Why don't
they-"

"We need to stay
bunched and close together, that's why!" Longarm said angrily. 
"This coach is still in one piece and you've got a fire.  If we
can pack a hundred people in here, they'll all likely survive
this storm."

"But..."

"What is wrong
with you?" Miss Noble cried, stepping in front of Longarm and
confronting the man.  "There are other people back there dying! 
Have you no charity in your heart?"

The man tried to
match her eyes, but then broke away and turned to the
fire.

"Like I said,"
Longarm repeated, "I need volunteers.  If we don't get all the
injured into this coach, they'll die of exposure."

"I'm coming," the
man who had protested said, whirling around and starting for the
door.

"Zeke," a woman
said to him, "you take my coat while you're out in that storm. 
And don't you fall off this mountain."

"I won't, Liz.  I
swear I won't," Zeke promised as he took his wife's
coat.

"I want to come
too," Martha Noble said.  "I met some wonderful people in that
coach.  I'm not about to stay here while their lives are in
danger."

"All right,"
Longarm said, proud of the young woman.

Other passengers,
perhaps shamed by Martha's courage, were soon following Longarm
back out into the storm.  The wind was blowing so hard that it
knocked them down when they passed the open areas between the
overturned cars and were exposed to its full, unopposed force. 
Three of the rescuers were not strong enough to stand up to the
fierce gusts and had to crawl back to safety, but the others,
with Longarm in front, struggled on until they arrived at the
coach.

"It'll be dark
soon!" he yelled, knowing that his words could not be heard by
most of the rescuers.  "We have to get the survivors to shelter
now!"

Longarm had to
fight through a blanket of snow in order to crawl back inside. 
Once inside, he tried to get a match, but his unprotected hands
were numb and useless.  With no alternative, Longarm began to
grope around in the coach for anyone who moved.  One delirious
passenger screamed and clawed at Longarm's face, but he easily
subdued the frightened woman.

"Calm down,
ma'am.  It's all right!" he yelled.  "We're getting you out of
here!"

She gradually came
to understand.  Moments later, the woman was eased out into the
storm and Longarm was moving on to another victim.  And so it
went until time lost all meaning.  Longarm did not know how many
people he roused and helped guide out of the coach, but it had to
be several dozen.

The dead bodies he
found were so stiff Longarm reckoned that they were already
beginning to freeze solid.  He had to work in darkness, so there
was no way of recognizing faces.  All that Longarm knew for sure
was that, every time he guided a survivor back to Martha Noble or
one of the others, he was definitely saving a life.

Exhausted, frozen,
and working in total darkness, Longarm stayed until he was
absolutely certain that there were no other survivors.  The last
few people that he helped to remove were undoubtedly in critical
shape and barely able to respond to his urgings.  Not once did
Longarm touch a person or a body that wore handcuffs and
manacles.  Eli Wheat was gone.  Longarm couldn't explain how or
where the killer could have gone to, but there was little doubt
that the man had somehow escaped.

"What about the
other coaches?" Martha asked after they had finally returned to
warmth and shelter two coaches forward.

"I don't know,"
Longarm said, listening to the shrieking wind.  "You heard what
the man said."

Martha pressed
close.  "Do you think he could have been mistaken?"

Longarm's head was
throbbing and he was so cold and drained that he had begun to
shiver despite the fact that the interior of the coach was packed
with humanity and the temperature was slightly above
freezing.

"Your coat is too
light," Martha said.  "You must use mine."

"I couldn't fit
into it even if I wanted to, which I don't," Longarm said, teeth
chattering like dice in a cup.

Martha touched
Longarm's face; then her hand dropped to unbutton his light
coat.  She pushed him down and unbuttoned her own coat, then
pulled it close around them.  Longarm felt the instant warmth of
her body.  He wrapped his arms around her and held the woman
tight.

"You were
magnificent today," Martha breathed into his ear.  "If you hadn't
demanded that the able-bodied in this coach join us, we couldn't
possibly have saved so many lives."

"You were pretty
great yourself," he replied.  "I owe you an apology for the
mean-spirited things I was thinking about you before."

"Because of that
prisoner?"

"Yes.  Eli Wheat
really is a vicious murderer."

"I know that now. 
I guess I even knew it then.  I should never have interfered.  I
don't even know what possessed me to-"

"Dear repentant
woman," Longarm said interrupting, "has anyone ever said that you
talk a lot?"

"It's been
mentioned," Martha said with a smile.  "I get that from my
father.  He was an attorney, and I plan to also practice law when
we reach Cheyenne.  It's a new challenge for me, but I know the
law far better than most men who hang out their
shingle."

"I've never seen a
woman lawyer before, but I'm sure that you'll do fine," Longarm
said.  "There's probably plenty of women that would rather deal
with another woman."

"There's even more
men that would rather deal with a woman," she told
him.

Longarm was sure
that was true.  Martha Noble was very attractive, and he'd rather
deal with her anytime than another man.

"Custis?  That is
your name, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Well, Custis, I
still say that you were acting beyond your authority when you
almost throttled that prisoner."

"I wish now that I
had.  But if I manage to recapture Eli Wheat, you can defend him
in court if you choose."

When the woman
offered no comment, Longarm chuckled.  "So, I'm holding a pretty
attorney in a very compromising position.  Martha, are you going
to sue me for damages if I try to steal a kiss?"

"You can kiss me
all you want," she whispered.  "I've never been kissed by a hero
before.  So kiss me."

Longarm did kiss
Miss Noble.  He kissed her until his teeth no longer chattered
and his passion momentarily swept away the nightmare of the train
wreck.  And then, he kissed her a little more.

"I wish we were
somewhere else," he confessed, squeezing her.  "Somewhere nice
and warm in Cheyenne."

"What do you think
happened?"

"You mean to the
train, or to my prisoner?"

"Both."

Longarm closed his
eyes.  "I thought, just for an instant before we went over the
mountainside, that I heard an explosion."

"You mean like
dynamite?"

"Exactly.  It
could have been an avalanche or a boulder that broke loose up
above and came crashing down to derail the entire train, but I
doubt it. We won't know for sure until help arrives and this
blizzard passes."

"Do you believe
that it might have had something to do with your
prisoner?"

"Maybe."

"But wouldn't the
risk of killing him have been too great?"

"Eli had
everything to gain and nothing to lose," Longarm said.  "If
you'll remember, I told you that he belonged to a gang of
cutthroats that robbed stagecoaches and trains.  They've derailed
the Union Pacific before with dynamite.  Sometimes pitching it
under the moving train, sometimes just blowing up track in front
of the locomotive."

Martha Noble
choked with rage.  "So, in order to give one ruthless and
convicted murderer a slim chance to escape, this gang was willing
to sacrifice dozens of innocent passengers and train
employees."

"That's the size
of it.  If it was the same gang that Eli belonged to, they will
have broken into the mail car and dynamited the safe in order to
steal whatever cash and valuables it might have
contained."

"And executed any
guards that might have survived," Martha said
bitterly.

"Of
course."

"What a fool I was
to upbraid you earlier today!"

"Don't let it
bother you for a minute," Longarm told the young attorney.
"Just... well, just chalk this UP to experience.  Eli has that
hangdog look that makes everyone think he's a victim rather than
the victimizer.  I think that's why the man is so
dangerous."