Longarm #433: Longarm and the Stagecoach Robbers

Author: Evans, Tabor

Brand: Berkley

Color: Multicolor

Binding: mass_market

Format: Deckle Edge

Number Of Pages: 192

Release Date: 25-11-2014

Details: Product Description
Longarm’s riding shotgun to catch a pair of highwaymen…

They say actions speak louder than words. So when two masked men with sawed-off shotguns stop the South Park stagecoach, they don’t need to announce their intentions. Since the silent thieves are helping themselves to the United States mail, Deputy Marshal Custis Long is charged with reining in the robbers.

When he’s not driving the stagecoach to smoke out the highwaymen, Longarm is driven to distraction by the gorgeous and insatiable widow who owns the stagecoach line. But with the bandits lying low, Longarm starts to feel like he’s just spinning his wheels—until he sets a trap that will have the hushed highwaymen crying out for mercy…
About the Author
Tabor Evans is the author of the long-running Longarm western series, featuring the adventures of Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1
United States Marshal William Vail looked up from the telegram on his desk, a scowl flickering across his normally bland expression. He peered at his deputy and said, “I have some work for you, Long.”
“Not more warrants t’ serve, I hope,” Deputy Marshal Custis Long said.
“No, Longarm, I just got this. It’s a gang that has been robbing the mail. They’ve hit the Carver Express Company twice in the past month, and the local law isn’t doing anything to stop them. At least not according to what the express line people believe. That could just be a matter of personal differences. I wouldn’t venture an opinion about that. But there is no question that robbery of the mail falls under our jurisdiction as a Federal crime. I want you to go look into it.”
“Carver,” Longarm repeated. Then he shook his head. “Don’t think I’m familiar with that line, boss.”
“Yes, you are, just not by that name. Carver bought out Henry Blaisdell up in South Park. You knew Henry. This is the same deal under a different name. But they took over Henry’s mail contract along with everything else,” Vail said.
“Ah, them I know,” Longarm conceded. “Two robberies of the mail?” he asked.
The balding but still lethal U.S. marshal nodded. “Yes, and that makes it our business, not just Carver’s.”
Longarm nodded. A tall man with seal brown hair and a sweeping handlebar mustache, he was a study in brown and black. The deputy wore a brown tweed coat, a calfskin vest, and brown corduroy trousers tucked into black stovepipe boots. Perhaps more important, he also wore a black gun belt strapped around narrow hips, the holster carried on his belly canted for a cross-draw and containing a double-action Colt .45 revolver.
He reached into his coat for a cheroot, bit the twist off, and spat the bit of tobacco into his palm but, seeing Billy Vail’s scowl, did not light the slender cigar.
“I’ll grab my bag an’ catch the next train up to Fairplay,” he said.
Vail nodded. “Henry has the schedule,” he said, the Henry this time referring to his clerk.
Fairplay was the major mining community in the South Park area. The railroad had recently reached it. The rest of the surrounding area of South Park was served by the stagecoach line formerly owned by Blaisdell and now, apparently, by Carver. Under either ownership, the mail contract gave the government a certain amount of authority and privilege.
“If you find that you need help,” Vail said, “it’s as close as the telegraph line. Keep that in mind.”
Deputy Custis Long nodded. “Don’t I always.”
“As a matter of fact, no, you don’t always,” Vail said. “But do keep it in mind this time.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Longarm told him. The tone of his voice suggested that he did not at all mean it. But the prudent thing was to say it anyway.
Longarm touched his forehead with one finger in salute, then left Billy Vail’s office. He retrieved his flat-crowned, snuff brown Stetson from the hat rack in the outer office and stopped at Henry’s desk to collect a fistful of expense vouchers before he headed home

EAN: 9780515154870

Package Dimensions: 10.0 x 8.8 x 1.1 inches

Languages: English