"Evans, Tabor - Longarm 234 - Longarm and the Renegade Assassins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Evans Tabor)

many of our people as we can put together this morning. There is a very
important visitor I want you all seen by."

"Mm?"

"A close friend of the president, actually. He's been appointed
Special Commissioner for Indian Affairs and sent here to look into the
question of grazing rights on the Ute lands."

Longarm grimaced. He was familiar with that particularly thorny
problem. There was a large and highly vocal contingent of stockmen,
ranchers who raised both beef and sheep, who felt they should have the
right to graze unfenced lands including those claimed by the Ute nation.
And there was a smaller but equally vocal group of moralizers, most of them
not Coloradans at all, but fainthearted folks from back East who Longarm
privately referred to as the Lo! the Poor Indian crowd, who supported Ute
demands that the open lands be kept free of privately held livestock and
available only to the Indians for their own hunting needs.

Neither side had yet expressed any willingness to compromise.

And each had solid political influence, the ranchers receiving support
from senators and congressmen representing voting blocs in the West, and
the Indians' supporters enjoying the support of politicians in the East,
and Midwest. Southern politicians seemed indifferent to the question; they
had their own problems.

In any event, Longarm knew the question was a potentially explosive
one, and whoever won this small and seemingly insignificant battle might
well achieve a superiority of power that would carry over into other
decisions for months or years to come, certainly until the next
congressional elections, and possibly much longer. So yes, this visitor
was important indeed, and could well have much influence on the entire
western part of the country.

"The U.S. attorney and I will be hosting a luncheon for the
commissioner and his wife," Billy explained. "At the Cargile Club," he
added.

Longarm's eyebrows went up and he whistled. "Fancy," he said. Which
was something of an understatement. The Cargile was without question the
grandest, most elegant--and most expensive--outfit ever to hit Denver. Or
probably anyplace else between San Francisco and--Longarm didn't know,
maybe Boston. Anyway, it was one highfalutin son of a bitch.

"I could wait until afternoon," Longarm offered, "if you'd take me
with you." After all, going as the guest of someone with money and
influence was the only way Custis Long would ever be allowed through the
gilded doors of a place as tony as the Cargile Club.