Longarm bolted out from behind the boulder and launched himself in a long, desperate dive toward George and the dynamite. “Hit the dirt!” he yelled to the other men. The fingers of his outstretched hand closed around the cylinder and flipped it away as Longarm crashed into the ground.
The dynamite spun up into the air and exploded.
The force of the blast drove Longarm's head against the rocky slope, and for a second he couldn't see anything except a dizzy blackness shot through with streaks of red. Then his vision cleared and his hearing began to come back. He saw George lying nearby, clutching a wounded shoulder. George's mouth was moving, and gradually Longarm began to hear the profanity spewing from the jehu's lips.
Longarm grinned despite the pain in his side. That had been a close one.
He pushed himself onto hands and knees, grabbed George, and pulled him into a more secure position behind the boulder. George's wound was painful but not too serious, Longarm decided. A glance along the rim of the plateau told him that the other men were shaken but all right. Charlie Dodson called, “Got any more of that dynamite, Marshal?”
“One more stick,” replied Longarm as he reached into his jacket pocket where he had tucked away the other red-wrapped cylinder. He brought it out, tossed it over to Pryor, who passed it on to Dodson. Longarm asked the mine superintendent, “Can you reach the cabin with it?”
“I swung a sledgehammer and a pickax for a long time before I started pushing papers,” said Dodson. “I'll give it a try.”
Longarm picked up George's rifle. His own Winchester was back there behind the boulder he had been using for cover before. “Let's give him some covering fire, boys,” Longarm called to the other men. He stuck the barrel of the rifle over the top of the boulder and started blazing away. Pryor and the other men followed his lead, pouring their fire toward the cabin.
Dodson lit the fuse, stood up, and heaved the dynamite toward the cabin as hard as he could. Longarm yelled, “Hold your fire!” He didn't want a stray bullet setting off the dynamite before it got there.
The outlaws forted up in the cabin must have heard the blast from the first stick, thought Longarm, and they had to suspect that the posse would try again. They opened up from inside the cabin, attempting to set off the dynamite before it reached its target. The cylinder kept spinning through the air, though, untouched by the rifle fire, trailing the sparking fuse. It hit the ground about fifteen feet from the cabin wall, bounced twice, and rolled to a stop only inches from the wall just as the fuse burned down.
The explosion sent logs flying into the air. When the dust and smoke cleared, Longarm saw that a hole had been blasted into the side of the cabin, and the whole structure was leaning crazily now. The roof began to collapse with a grinding and crashing sound. Through the jagged hole in the wall, Longarm saw movement, and a second later three men stumbled out of the collapsing cabin. One of them was dressed only in tattered, bloodstained shreds of clothing. He must have been right on the other side of the wall from where the dynamite had gone off, thought Longarm.
All three of the outlaws were empty-handed. “Enough!” one of them shouted between shuddering coughs. “We give up, damn it! Don't shoot!”
Longarm and the other members of the posse came out on the flat top of the plateau and kept their guns trained on the outlaws as they advanced toward the wrecked cabin. In a matter of moments, the three men Mallory had left behind to guard the hideout had their hands tied securely behind their backs.
Longarm, Dodson, and Dupree walked over to the cabin while Pryor and the other men herded the prisoners toward the edge of the plateau. Longarm peered into the ruins and saw a couple of trunks sitting next to some crude cots that had been overturned by the force of the blast. The trunks weren't locked. Longarm stepped carefully through the debris and reached the nearest trunk. He lifted the lid.
Silver ingots gleamed dully in the sunlight.
“Incredible,” said Dupree. “There's a small fortune here. What was Mallory going to do with it?”
“I expect when he figured he had enough, he'd pack it all out and head for San Francisco or someplace like that,” said Longarm. “His share would have been enough to let him live like a king for a long time.”
“There's plenty here for that already,” Dodson pointed out.
Longarm shrugged. “Outlaws are generally greedier than they are smart. That's what trips 'em up.” He winced as he felt the sticky wetness on his side. “Damn. Must've busted those bullet holes open again when I went diving after that stick of dynamite.”
Dodson slapped him heartily on the shoulder. “We'll patch you up, Marshal, and ol' George, too. I reckon that'll do until we can get you back to Galena City.” The mine superintendent grinned broadly. “And once you're back in the hands of Miss Sutton and her ladies, I'm sure they'll take mighty good care of you.”
Longarm had to grin, too. This time, he was looking forward to recuperating in the Silver Slipper.
Â
“All that work getting you healthy again,” Nola said crossly, “and you go and ruin it, Custis.”
“Couldn't let George get his head blowed off,” Longarm explained patiently. “Not if I could help it.”
Rafaela pulled a fresh bandage tight around his midsection. “You could have been killed, too, you know,” she said.
Longarm inclined his head in acknowledgment of her point. “True enough, but that happens all the time in my line of work. Seems like not a month goes by when somebody's not doing their damnedest to kill me.”
“I couldn't live like that,” said Angie. “I'd be afraid all the time.”
Mickey stroked Longarm's bare shoulder. “Custis is not afraid,” she said. “Custis is a brave man.”
He grinned at the four women standing around him as he sat in Nola's room. “Custis is a damned lucky man,” he said, “to have four ladies like you looking after him.”
“Yes, well, one of these days we're liable to get tired of patching you up,” Nola said. Her expression softened slightly. “I'm just glad you captured Mallory and recovered all that silver.”
Rafaela was finished with her bandaging, so Longarm leaned back and sighed. “Might never have been able to do it without the four of you,” he said solemnly. “You've got my thanks, and the thanks of the Justice Department.”
“That and two bits will buy a drink,” said Nola. Longarm could tell she was somewhat uncomfortable with his gratitude, so he decided not to press the issue.
Instead, he said, “It's been a long day. I could use something to eat.”
“And then some rest,” Nola said. Longarm nodded in agreement.
It had taken a while to do a rough job of doctoring on Longarm and George, as well as to figure out a way to haul all that silver back to Galena City. The posse had wound up unloading the silver and splitting it up among them, leaving the trunks in the ruined cabin. All the saddlebags on the posse's horses had been stuffed full, but the silver was now safe and sound, locked up in the stagecoach station. With Mallory now in custody, Charlie Dodson and the other mine superintendents planned to send wagons into town the next day to load up the silver and take it to Carson City.
Evening was fast approaching as Longarm and Nola shared a meal in her bedroom. Longarm felt himself getting drowsy. Even though it was only dusk outside, when he was finished eating, he yawned and said, “I reckon I'm going to have to turn in.”
“You go right ahead, Custis,” Nola told him. “Like I said before, you need your rest.”
Longarm couldn't argue with that. Nola pulled the curtains closed as he climbed into bed, and then she blew out the lamp before slipping quietly from the room.
A deep, dreamless sleep claimed Longarm, and he had no idea how much time had passed when he suddenly awoke. His lawman's instincts had alerted him to something, and as he rolled over quickly, he discovered what it was.
A naked woman had climbed into bed with him.
She put her arms around him and kissed him, her lips unerringly finding his, even in the dimness of the room. His arms went around her, and he expected to feel Nola's familiar contours. Instead, he was surprised to realize that the woman snuggling against him was considerably more slender and less endowed than Nola.
“Rafaela?” he whispered.
“Ssshhh.” Her fingers wrapped hotly around his hardening shaft. “Just lie still, Custis.”
His visitor was Rafaela, all right. He was lying on his side, and after a moment she turned so that she was lying next to him, spoon-fashion, with her rear nestled against his groin. His rigid manhood slipped between her thighs and rubbed against the lightly furred lips of her femininity. She moved her hips back and forth, creating a delicious friction even though he had not yet penetrated her. Longarm slipped his arms around her so that he could fondle her small, pear-shaped breasts.
The door of the room made a slight noise as it opened and closed.
Longarm caught his breath, not knowing what to expect as a figure darted across the shadows of the room. He would have rolled away from Rafaela and reached for his gun on the bedside table, but she clamped her thighs together tightly, holding him in place. “It's all right,” she said.
A second later, Longarm heard the whisper of silk, and then the bed sank a little behind him as someone else climbed in. Soft lips kissed the back of his neck as long hair slid enticingly over his shoulder. He felt another nude woman pressing herself against him from behind. It was a little more difficult for him to be sure, but he didn't think this was Nola, either, and his second mysterious visitor wasn't big enough to be Angie. That left Mickey.
“We make Custis happy,” she whispered in his ear, confirming his guess. One of her hands boldly explored his body, stealing between his legs from behind to cup and caress his sac.
He groaned in pleasure. “Damn right you make Custis happy,” he said hoarsely. He moved his upper arm and reached back so that he could caress Mickey's hip. She arched against him.
This was what the old saying about an embarrassment of riches must mean, Longarm thought as he nuzzled the side of Rafaela's neck. It had been a while since he had been in bed with two women at the same time, but he hadn't forgotten what a special pleasure it was. He explored and caressed Rafaela, searching out all her secret places, while Mickey did the same to him.
“Be ... careful ... Custis,” Rafaela gasped out, breathless with joy. “You don't want to ... hurt yourself again.”
“You ladies are the best medicine I know,” Longarm said as he boldly slipped a finger into Rafaela's womanhood. She caught hold of his hand and pressed him deeper into her.
Somehow, Longarm wasn't surprised when the door opened again.
“Is it all right to come in now?” asked Angie as she leaned in from the hallway.
Longarm had to laugh. “Come on in,” he called. He stopped himself from saying “The more, the merrier.” But he thought it.
Angie stepped into the room, closed the door behind her, and hurried over to the bed. In the brief flash of light from the corridor, Longarm saw that she was already nude, and spectacularly nude at that. Her bountiful breasts were tipped with large circles of pale pink, and the triangle of hair at the juncture of her thighs was thick and blond. She climbed onto the bed from the foot of it and straddled Longarm's calves as Mickey and Rafaela urged him to roll over onto his back. His manhood, hard as a bar of steel when it was released from the glorious trap of Rafaela's thighs, sprang up into the air. Angie leaned forward and wrapped both hands around it.
“Damn, Custis,” she said. “I never saw a pecker quite so nice before.”
Longarm would have thanked her for the compliment, but before he could say anything, she leaned forward even more and took the head of his shaft into her mouth. Her lips closed around it tightly, and she began to suck greedily.
He started to moan, but Mickey stopped that by kissing him. Her tongue darted into his mouth. At the same time, Rafaela began running her fingers through the thick mat of hair on his chest and tonguing his nipples, each in turn. Longarm put his left arm around Mickey and his right around Rafaela.
When Mickey finally took her mouth away from his, he gasped for air, then said, “Does Nola know about this?”
“It was her idea,” murmured Rafaela. She moved her head lower on his belly, trailing kisses that set his senses on fire. When she reached his groin, she told Angie, “My turn now.”
Grudgingly, Angie relinquished the thick pole of male flesh and straightened as Rafaela opened her mouth and engulfed it. Mickey was moving in that direction, too, and Longarm threw his head back on the pillows and thought,
Oh, Lord, they're going to take turns!
That was exactly what they did, first one and then the other and then the third one sucking and licking and kissing until Longarm thought that he was going to explode. He wasn't just thinking of his manhood, either, he realized. It felt as if his entire body was about to fly apart at the seams.
Finally, Rafaela lifted her lips from him and said, “I don't think he's going to last much longer. You'd better go ahead, Angie.”
“You reckon it'll be all right?” asked Angie.
“Go on,” Mickey urged her.
Good grief,
thought Longarm. They had worked all this out among themselves ahead of time. Obviously, Angie was going to have the honor of bringing him to a climax. Well, that wasn't going to take a hell of a lot of work, he told himself.
Still straddling him, she moved up so that she was poised above his hips. She reached down and gripped his shaft to guide it into its natural slot, which was hot and slick with wetness. She was surprisingly tight, confirming Longarm's suspicion that she hadn't been in her current line of work for very long. She slid down onto him until he was completely buried inside her. She gasped in ecstasy as the head of his shaft hit bottom.