"Evans, Tabor - Longarm 222 - Longarm and the Backwoods Baroness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Evans Tabor)

wanted to be considered for the assignment. In that case, you'd have to
pick up your badge and your identification papers too."

For a long moment, Longarm stared across the desk at his former boss.
Then he sighed and stubbed out his cheroot in Vail's ashtray. With his
right hand he reached for the folder, while with the left he scooped up the
wallet containing his badge. "You're a hard-hearted son of a bitch, you
know that?" he muttered.

"Damn straight." As Longarm opened the folder, Vail added, "Looks
like you're going back to timber country."

"Yeah. Looks like." Longarm started reading.

A half hour later, as he strode out of the Federal Building with
travel vouchers and a copy of the report folded up in his coat pocket, he
lit another cheroot and took a deep drag on it. Then he turned and looked
through the crystal-clear air at the mountains and felt, as he always did,
the irresistible pull of faraway places and new challenges. Once again, he
was free to answer that siren's call.

Grinning to himself, Longarm said quietly, "Much obliged, Billy.
Reckon I must've been out of my head, 'cause I pert' near made a mighty big
mistake."

His mistake, Longarm reflected as he ducked the huge, knobby fist
coming right at his face, had been getting off the damn train in the first
place. He should have turned around and gone back to Denver and that rich
widow. Cussing himself for his own indecisiveness and Billy Vail for being
so blasted smart, he threw himself forward, driving his shoulder into the
belly of the man who was trying to knock his head off.

The lumberjack staggered backward on the platform of the train
station. Longarm caught hold of the man's legs and heaved upward, and with
a wild yell the lumberjack went over on his back, landing heavily on the
planks. Longarm almost fell too, but he caught his balance in time to stay
upright. He twisted around, waiting to see who was going to jump him next.

Instead, he saw that the ruckus was about to escalate from fisticuffs
to gunplay. One of the cowboys was reaching for a Colt.

Longarm stepped forward quickly, palming out his own .44 from the
cross-draw rig on his left hip. The cowboy who figured to start shooting
had his back half-turned to Longarm, so Longarm was able to take him
unawares and clout him on the skull. The puncher's high-crowned hat
absorbed most of the blow's force, just as Longarm intended, but it was
still enough to drive him to his knees and make the half-drawn gun slip
from his fingers.

Since he already had his own Colt in his hand, Longarm put a round