Longarm and the Colorado gundown

_{“Sorry,” Longarm repeated. He took a few steps away from the others and lighted a cheroot. The dry, clean flavor of the smoke tasted good and seemed to help settle him down. Longarm decided he was just being jumpy now because of what he could expect to face in Snowshoe. Every white in the country would despise the man who’d come to stand up for the hated Utes. Longarm could handle being an object of scorn and hatred. It wouldn’t change a thing about what he thought or how he acted. But he didn’t have to look forward to it or pretend to like it. Duty didn’t go so far that it made a man less than human, and even a deputy U.S. marshal had feelings.}

_{He grunted softly to himself. There he was, borrowing troubles that weren’t in front of him. Why, he could think about all this when he got to Snowshoe. No point in fretting over it before then.}

_{Once he’d given himself that little talking to, and had decided he could wait there cheerfully for however long it took, the last passenger arrived.}

_{“All right, Jimmy, hurry it up. I don’t have time to waste for the likes of you,” the big boss snapped at the driver.}

_{The man helped himself to a seat immediately behind the driving box, and gave everyone else impatient glares while the driver supervised the loading of several bags that a uniformed porter had carried in the big man’s wake.}

_{Longarm shrugged and helped the lady onto the wagon, then stepped off to the side to take a few last puffs on his cheroot before he got aboard. He frankly didn’t give a damn what the other men might think of his smoke, but he wouldn’t}

_{have considered getting on with a lighted cigar unless he checked with the lady first. The two businessmen, drummers presumably, got onto the wagon next, with Longarm finally trailing them and the driver climbing up last.}

_{The lady sat across from the railroad boss. The drummers took up the bench in back, leaving Longarm a choice between planting himself next to the lady or beside the railroad boss. He chose to squeeze the railroad bigwig rather than force his presence on the woman.}

_{The railroad boss was a large man. Not at all fat but definitely large. He was at least as tall as Longarm but probably was twice as broad. The fellow was middle-aged now, and certainly softer of body than he would once have been. Although anything harder than this guy now was would pretty much have to be classified as a metal, Longarm decided. He looked just plain solid.}