Read Online Longarm in Hell's Half Acre by Tabor Evans - Free Book Online Page A

covered veranda. He stopped a moment, then lit a fresh cheroot. His brown tweed suit, snuff-colored Stetson, and low-heeled boots had all been brushed, and the suit carefully pressed. As he ran a finger back and forth under his heavy moustache, he watched Willard Allred hobble across Third Street from the direction of the White Elephant.
    â€œBeen starin’ in the door again like a kid at the candy counter?”
    â€œYeah. Gonna work up nerve enough to stroll in one a these days.”
    â€œHell, you don’t have any problem strollin’ into the nicest hotel in town. Why does a saloon slow you down?”
    Allred tilted his head like a confused hound. “Not sure, exactly. It’s just different, that’s all. Hell, I’ve got an accommodation with these folks here at the El Paso. Ain’t managed to get nothin’ goin’ over at the White Elephant. Besides, a man kinda feels obligated to spend money in a place like the Elephant. Money I ain’t always got to throw around.”
    Longarm glanced up and down the darkening thoroughfare. Both Main and Third Streets teemed with bustling knots of laughing, loud-talking people. Men and women strolled arm in arm. Cowboys, freighters, gamblers, and travelers of every imaginable stripe moved about between large puddles of flickering light created by lamps behind the opaque windows of various businesses along the streets.
    Allred tilted his head back and sniffed the air. “Do I detect the hint of toilet water waftin’ off a your person, Custis?”
    Longarm snatched the cheroot from between his lips and smiled. “Women tend to like a man who smells like something other’n sweat, dirt, a nasty ass, and horses, Tater. And when it comes to women, I’m gonna do whatever it takes to make ’em happy.”
    â€œAh. Well, of the worldly pleasures available to a man down in the Acre, am I to assume that women are the first order of business this evenin’?”
    The cheroot traveled from one corner of Longarm’s mouth to the other. “Perhaps a bit later in the evening. We’ll just have to wait and see what kind of opportunity presents itself. Right now, I could use a good meal, two or three glasses of good Maryland rye, and maybe a bit of poker to top off my first evening in town.”
    â€œFine eatin’ joint right here in the hotel. Mighty good’un in the Elephant, too. Merchant’s Restaurant over yonder across Main’s a favorite spot for visitin’ cattlemen. Any of ’em are good. Just take your pick.”
    Longarm turned, clapped Allred on the shoulder, then said, “Come along, Willard. I’ll treat you to a beaker of your favorite spirits at the White Elephant. Then you can head home for a much-deserved night’s rest. Figure I’m not gonna be needin’ your services tonight.”
    Yellow-tinted lamplight, laughter, and music poured from behind the White Elephant’s inviting doors. Allred followed Longarm inside, but hesitated once he’d crossed the threshold, and appeared reluctant to go any farther. For a second, the poor man seemed unable to believe the beauty of what presented itself for his unfettered examination.
    A few steps over the Elephant’s threshold, a wide, carpeted staircase led to the second floor gaming area. The clicking sounds made by a roulette wheel and a Keno game’s goose filtered down the steps like cascading water and invited the potential risk taker to come on up and put his money on the line. To the right of the flight of steps, the famed saloon’s restaurant beckoned, and on the left, the most famous bar in the entire West loomed, in all of its mirrored splendor.
    Tater Allred gazed up to the landing at the top of the carpeted stairway and, in a voice filled with pious awe, said, “Done heard tell they’s a table up yonder what has fifty thousand dollars in gold coin stacked on it fer anyone as passes to stop