Longarm and the Colorado gundown

_{“Then you can bring in the equipment that lets you get your ore outta the ground for maybe six dollars a ton ’stead of ten. An’ you put in your own mill an’ process your ore right on the spot at a cost of maybe a dollar a ton ’stead of paying good money to haul it elsewhere. What all that means is that your same mine, same ore, same deal all around is earning you eight dollars a ton ’stead of costing you five or six.”}

_{“You ever think about being a businessman?” Longarm asked.}

_{“Me?” The grease-stained brakeman laughed. “I ain’t smart enough for that, mister. Me, I’m just a easy-going ol’ boy with a broad back an’ no brains. Ask anybody. Draw my wages the end o’ every day an’ drink ’em up every night. That’s all I want outta life, neighbor. That an’ to be left alone.” He inspected the glowing tip of his cheroot, then added with a wink, “An’ to have me a good smoke now an’ again. For which I thank you.”}

_{“I’ve enjoyed talking to you, friend,” Longarm said, meaning it.}

_{“Any time,” the cheerful little day laborer said as he went on his way.}

_{Longarm figured it was time for him to get along on his way too. He went back to the hotel for breakfast, and as a precaution asked the dining room to make him up a box lunch, then went up to his virtually unused hotel room to reclaim his gear and carry everything down. By that time the box lunch was waiting for him. He paid for it and tucked it into his bag.}

_{He hadn’t even started out yet, but already he was grumbling under his breath.}

_{This wasn’t the sort of country, nor the sort of trip through it, that would lend itself comfortably to a man}

_{traveling with luggage and a saddle.}

_{Yet there would be no point in trying to hire a saddle horse. Even if one was available—and that wasn’t real likely in a mining camp like this—he probably would only have to abandon it in a few miles anyway. He hadn’t been paying all that much attention to the hillsides while he was on that train yesterday, but what he did see wasn’t country that would be easily covered from horseback. This was country where a man was apt to require good handholds and a keen sense of balance.}

_{And now he was having to tackle it with a saddle in one hand and a suitcase in the other?}

_{Longarm scowled. He also set out walking down the railroad tracks, though, awkward encumbrances or no. The sooner he got started, the sooner the ordeal would be done with. And the sooner those Utes would benefit from the writ of habeas corpus Lawyer Able had managed to scare up for them.}