Longarm and the Whiskey Woman by Tabor Evans Page A

to expose. It was all he could do to keep the surprise out of his voice when he said, "Treasury agents? What are those?"
    Carson said, "They're agents from the Treasury Department that come around where whiskey gets made to make certain that the revenue tax gets paid on every gallon."
    Longarm tried to sound wondering. "The hell you say!"
    By now, they had begun entering the foothills that rose to the northeast of the town. They were forced to pull the horses down to a slower gait. Carson said, "You mean, you've never heard of Treasury agents?"
    Longarm said, "Where I come from, we don't have such, because we don't make no whiskey. Ain't much except rocks, cactus, and sand in Arizona and ain't none of them make a very good blend of whiskey."
    Carson said, "You're going to have to keep reminding me that you haven't seen civilization in a long time."
    They rode in silence for about ten minutes, and then Longarm ventured to ask, "Is it any of my business where you're taking me?"
    "Well, if you have to know, I'm taking you tonight to a member of the Colton clan."
    They were walking the horses now and Longarm suddenly pulled back on the reins and stopped. It was a second or two before Carson reacted. He stopped his horse and looked back. He said, "What the hell is the matter?"
    Longarm said, "In case you didn't notice, that was a man by the name of Morton Colton that was fixing to have two deputies hold me while he beat me to pudding."
    "Yeah, I know."
    "And you're taking me to his family?"
    Carson chuckled and waved Longarm forward. "I expect I better explain something to you. The Colton family, to a man and a woman and a child, despise Morton Colton more than you or me. He is an outcast. The son of a bitch has done every low-down trick on his own family that there is to do, but at the same time, he's still a Colton."
    Longarm said, "If they despise him so bad, how come he's doing their work in town?"
    "That's just what I'm telling you. He's still a Colton, but they don't want him anywhere around the place. They don't want him handling the whiskey, they don't want him around any of his female cousins, nor do they want him around anybody while he's got a gun in his hands. You saw him cheating in that poker game. Well, he's cheated them on every deal he's ever handled, but he's still a Colton. You've got to understand that these mountain folk stick together like glue, so they put him out of the way in town and said, 'Now handle this. This is your last chance. If you screw this up, we're going to hang you.'"
    Longarm said softly, "Well, I'll be damned. You mean they would protect me from him?"
    Carson laughed softly. He said, "They would protect the devil from him. You've got to understand these clans that live way back here as they do without much outside intercourse--and I mean that in more ways than one. They don't trust strangers, and even though Morton is a low-down, no-good son of a bitch, he's still a Colton, so they trust him to do this job, which he does very well, by the way. The son of a bitch is just a natural-born greasy cheat. He's a liar, he's a snake, and he's just the kind to handle a payoff to the law."
    Longarm said slowly, "I see. So now you're taking me to the family? Are you going to tell them that I just had a run-in with Morton?"
    "Oh, hell, yes. That will set you up just fine with them. In fact, they might even get nearly hospitable. Well, no, that's going a bit far, but they might get nearly to where they tolerate you."
    Longarm shook his head. He said, "This is the damnedest place I've ever been in. I thought the Texas-Mexico border was bad, but this is worse."
    Carson looked at him quickly. He asked, "What were you doing near the Tex-Mex border?"
    Longarm said, "Oh, buying cattle." He smiled to himself, wondering if Carson thought he could be caught out that easily. Carson said, "Oh, I forgot you're a cattle rancher."
    "Was a cattle rancher."
    They rode in silence for a few more minutes. Longarm said,