by Gene Curry
“Sounds right workable.”
“It is for sure,” the Kid went on. “Which brings me back to the first point. Like I told you, Butch and Etta are all the family I have. Without them I don’t know what I’d be doing. Could be I’d still be a small-time gun artist.”
The Kid paused and leaned forward in his chair. “I lost my first family, Saddler. I don’t want to lose the second.”
“I hope you won’t.”
“I’m glad you said that,” the Kid said. “Cause if you do anything to make me lose my family, I’d just have to kill you. I’m not like Butch. I don’t talk a lot, but I get things done. You follow my meaning?”
I said I did. The Kid offered me his hand and we shook. Then he said good night and went out.
Eleven
It was getting dark when we went out through the ravine. Except for the girls, I had no fond memories of the Hole in the Wall, and I was glad to see the last of it. In the narrow places brush whipped at our faces and the going was slow. For a long time nobody had anything to say, not even Cassidy. Once we were through the ravine, we began the long descent to the flat country below.
We rode all night and rested up for a few hours after the sun came up. After that we split up. Pearl and I went on ahead. Pearl had shucked her range clothes in favor of a faded gingham dress and a sun bonnet. Dressed like that she looked very young, but that didn’t matter. In farming communities a girl who isn’t married by eighteen is considered an old maid. Before we left, Cassidy told us where we would join forces again—at the base of a big rock called Old Man’s Dome. We couldn’t miss it, Cassidy said. It was fifteen miles from Mansfield, and about a mile off the road.
All through the day Pearl and I kept up a steady pace, but we didn’t do any hard riding because that would have looked suspicious. Pearl was excited at the thought of going into a real town for a change.
“Can we stop in a real hotel?” she asked. “One with real bathtubs and plenty of hot water? And maybe there’s a real theater in that town. Singing and dancing or even a play.”
“We’re going in there to look over the bank,” I said. Pearl made a face. “The bank robbing won’t happen till tomorrow. Let’s have a good time tonight. Tomorrow we could be dead.”
That was a sobering thought and it was perfectly true. There was no knowing how it would turn out. Anything could go wrong. Pearl knew that as well as I did, but it didn’t seem to bother her. Danger affected her like whiskey. She talked a blue streak, and more than once I had to keep her from kicking her horse into a gallop. Later in the afternoon we came to a Dutch farmer’s place on the Mansfield road. He was more civil than friendly, but he did tell us to drink as much of his good spring water as we liked.
“Won’t charge you a cent for it,” the Dutchman said. “You happen to have a buckboard we can buy or hire? We’re both tired of sitting a saddle and would like to ride in comfort for a change.”
“I might have a buckboard for hire,” he said. A buckboard stood in plain sight under a lean-to at the end of the house. “I’d kind of like to get it back. That means you’ll have to leave some money.”
“Whatever is right,” I said. “Only don’t make it too steep. We sold out our place and it is our intention to settle some place around Mansfield. They say she’s a comer, that town.”
“You heard right,” the Dutchman said. “You look like honest folk, but you’re going to have to leave fifty dollars. You can see that buckboard is practically new.”
It wasn’t, but it wasn’t falling apart either. I gave him the money and he hitched it up for us. I tied our horses to the back of the buckboard and we started off for the meeting place. We spotted the big rock from a long way off, standing up above the trees. Then, making sure we weren’t seen, we turned off the road, reached the rock, and waited for the rest of them to get there.
By nightfall they were all there, but you could hardly describe the atmosphere as friendly. Cassidy said the train with the money was due in Mansfield at one p.m. the following day, which meant that Pearl and I had to be up bright and early to check the bank and to look around for signs of an ambush. I wasn’t wanted for anything, but there was always a chance that some sharp-eyed Pinkerton-man might remember Pearl for her banditry in the Southwest.
The town was going good as we drove in on our rented buckboard. Mansfield had the look of a place with strong law. Nobody was shooting out lights or riding horses into saloons. The town was too far north to get many Texans, and that was just as well because Texans have a way of joining into gunfights that are none of their business. If the Pinkertons were in town, they would be as much, or more, than we could handle.
Pearl loved the bustle of the town, the saloons going full blast, the crowd of miners and cowhands on the sidewalks. Mansfield was one of those towns that happen in a hurry. Practically everything in it was new. A few stern-looking deputy marshals walked around keeping an eye on things. Looking the way we did, we didn’t rate more than a second glance.
Instead of looking for the bank, we put up our horses at one of the three livery stables. The bank, a new brick building, was easily visible on Main Street. It could wait till morning, though.
“Well, will you look at that hotel!” Pearl said.
I thought it looked a little too fancy for a farm couple. However, my shy lady said she’d be damned to fucking hell if we stayed anywhere else. It was a great big barn of a place, and so new that the painters hadn’t finished doing all of it. Pearl was like a kid with a jar of rock candy.
“This is what I call living,” she whispered while I was signing the register.
Taking us for hayseeds, the dumpy little clerk behind the desk smirked and bowed. He turned the register on its swivel so he could read our names.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Ambrister,” he said.
I winked at the little bastard. “Just got married,” I said.
Pearl blushed modestly and we went upstairs. Up there she pulled off her dumb looking sunbonnet and threw it against the wall. Then she grinned at me.
“It was funny to hear that man calling me Missus.” She kicked off her elastic-sided shoes and waltzed around the room. “You ever think of getting married, Saddler? You don’t take good care of yourself, you know that?”
I got a bottle of whiskey out of the carpetbag. “I do all right,” I said.
“No you don’t,” Pearl said. “You look all neglected. Come on now, let’s see a big smile on that battered face of yours. This may be the last night of our lives, and I want to have fun. I want to have a bath and then we’ll go dancing. Don’t tell me you can’t dance?”
She was crazy, that girl, but I liked her. Not being able to trust her didn’t mean I couldn’t like her. “I like to do my dancing lying down,” I said. “I don’t get as tired.” Happier than I’d ever seen her, Pearl dropped her clothes on the floor and came into my arms. “I’ll never get tired of that kind of dancing,” she said.
“Would you like it better if we had Laura here?” I asked her. “That was a good night we had, the three of us. You girls sure wore me out.”
I didn’t expect that to offend her, but it did. She snapped, “I’m not enough for you, is that it. In bed I’m the equal of two women. I’ll show you!”
And show me she did. Once I got her clothes off and stretched her out on the bed, she went wild. She spread her legs as wide as she could until her cunt-lips showed pink. She was very young and had the energy to go with it. I got between her legs and was about to guide my cock into her when she grabbed it and did it herself. She was very wet and it went in all the way as smooth as melted butter.
We kissed while we fucked and she sucked on my tongue at the same time. Her girlish mouth was soft and sweet. Suddenly she tightened her cunt muscles, squeezing my cock. She tightened and let go, tightened and relaxed, catching me off guard every time she did it. It looked like she was trying to prove that she alone was enough to satisfy me. She closed her eyes as I went in and out of her. Her legs
were locked around me, but they were high on my back, almost around my neck. Her ass was off the bed and I supported it with both hands. She was athletic, that girl. I was as excited as she was, the way we were doing it.
She lifted herself and she gave a little scream when she came. The come flowed out of her and wet my hands. To keep her ass from slipping off my hands I had to squeeze it tight. That made her come again and I came myself. There was no use trying to hold it back. This wild, horny young girl excited me so much I couldn’t hold it back. My balls tightened up and I creamed with my cock pushed far into her. Then I let her ass down on the bed and she pulled my cock out of her and began to suck it. She didn’t wipe it off first.
“I want to taste myself,” she whispered. “I want to taste your come and my come.” She smacked her lips as she sucked me. “It tastes so good. Sort of salty, but good.”
She sucked me for a very long time, as if she couldn’t get enough of it. It’s easy to get hard all over again when you’re sucked like that. I didn’t mind if she sucked me till morning. The bed was soft and there was nobody to disturb us. Then she began to move her head back and forth and it was like I was fucking her in the mouth. She held her head steady and I began to do just that. Then she lay on her back with her head on the mattress and I moved up and really fucked her in the mouth. I came, and though I hadn’t touched her cunt, she came too. For a farm couple we were pretty fancy fuckers. Finally we dropped off to sleep.
First thing in the morning, Pearl and I ate breakfast in a restaurant run by a fat woman with a mustache. Pearl looked pretty with her face shiny from soap and water, and I don’t think anybody noticed the way her purse sagged from the weight of the stubby revolver in it.
After we got through eating we started for the bank. We got there at nine and it was a bank all right and not something the Pinkertons had thrown up as part of a trap. It was raw, red brick with the mortar showing white between the spaces. The big-lettered sign over the door proclaimed it to be the First Bank of Mansfield. There were green blinds and thick bars on the windows, and it was so new that there were brick chips and a dusting of wood shavings on the sidewalk out in front.
I tried the doorknob and found it locked. Then, to make it look good, I took out my silver watch, thumbed open the cover, and looked at it. Then I rattled the doorknob and called out in my farmer voice, “You folks open for business or not?” I rattled the doorknob again, louder this time. We stood and waited and after a minute or two a cranky-looking man with a bald head and a brocaded vest unlocked the door and glared at us. He glared at us before he saw how pretty Pearl was.
I beat him to the punch. “You open for business, mister? I was of a mind to start an account in your bank. My name’s Rufus Ambrister and this is my lady, Edwina.”
Edwina got a short bow from the banker. I guessed he was the manager. I knew he couldn’t be a teller, not with that fine gray suit. “Sorry, folks, but we’re not open for business yet. We’re new, as you can see. Yes, sir, this is going to be the leading bank in town. Why don’t you come back tomorrow and you’ll be treated with every courtesy. Ask for me if you like. My name is Mr. Philpot.”
“Getting set up, are you, Mr. Philpot?”
The banker sighed, a busy man carrying a heavy load. “There’s so much to be done. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” The door closed and the key turned in the lock. I had to dig my fingers into Pearl’s arm to keep her from giggling as we walked away.
“I’ll surely enjoy robbing that old fool,” Pearl said.
I got the buckboard from the livery stable and we started out of town at a walk. Nobody took the slightest interest in us. Why should they? When you’ve seen one farm couple, you’ve seen them all. I didn’t whip up the horses until we were out of sight of the town, and then I put them through their paces. After a few miles I slowed them to a walk after I decided that it wasn’t seemly for a respectable looking couple to be traveling at such a pace.
Pearl hadn’t said anything for a long time. Another half mile passed in silence. Then she turned on the box and laid her hand on my arm. “We could rob that bank all by ourselves. That banker knows what we look like and he’d let us in if we went back. At least he’d open the door. We could hold guns on him and everybody in there. We could gag and tie the tellers and make the manager do the talking. Why, I could even get behind one of the windows and look busy when they came in with the money. You could hold a gun on the manager from a crack in the door. That old fool would do exactly as you told him to. The minute the money is in the safe and the guards are gone, we just tie the manager and walk out of there. What do you think?”
“No dice,” I said.
“Why couldn’t it work? Who’s going to be looking for a farmer and his wife?”
“We do it as planned. You’re a bad girl, Pearl, and I want you to shut up before I get too-tempted.”
Pearl sulked prettily. “You’re a fool, Saddler. You want to know something else? You’ll never get rich because you’re a fool.”
I grinned at her. “Then I’m a fool. Now will you shut up.”
Pearl didn’t give up so easily. “You could have me and the money. I’d be faithful to you, Saddler. I’d spread my legs for no man but you. No matter how tempted I was, I’d keep my legs together.”
“Don’t be so romantic,” I said.
For a moment Pearl looked scared. “You won’t tell the others what I said?”
“I never even heard you. You’ll get your fair share like all the others.”
But Pearl didn’t trust anybody. “If you say a word, I’ll say you brought up the idea. I’ll say you tried to talk me into ditching the others. That’ll get you shot, Saddler. Oh, why don’t you go to hell!”
Crazy bitch or not, she was a pretty girl, and I find it hard to get mad at pretty girls. “Hell is where we’re all headed, little sister. You and me and all the others!” She stayed quiet for the rest of the journey. It was a good road and we made good time. Another ten miles and we turned off and headed into a stretch of low, bare hills. I caught the flash of field glasses when we left the road. In a few minutes we were there.
“Hot damn!” Cassidy whooped when I told him about the bank.
“It’s the genuine article,” I said. “Even talked to the manager and he said they were opening in the morning. Come on now, we better get going if we’re going to beat that train to town.”
It took no time to get saddled up. I watered the horses and we headed back toward town. Cassidy and the others gave us a good start and before long we were back on the outskirts of Mansfield. We went to the livery stable to put the buckboard away, and then we headed for the bank again. My watch said it was ten minutes to one.
The same cranky man opened the door when I banged on the glass panel. At first he just pulled back the lace curtains and shook his head. I kept pointing at the ground, at a place he couldn’t see from inside. He kept shaking his head and I kept pointing. His face got red with exasperation, but finally he yanked the door open.
Pearl smiled her sweetest smile, but this time it didn’t work.
“Folks,” the banker said. “Didn’t I tell you this morning the bank isn’t open yet. Now what is it you want? I’m a very busy man. I have a bank to open, or have you forgotten?”
Crowding in close, I dug my gun in his fat gut. “You just opened,” I said. “Now walk in ahead of us like nothing’s happening. My lady here will see to the door. Walk on now and be talking and laughing while you do it. Say something businesslike.”
Behind the brass cages three tellers were stacking papers and doing other bank work. They looked up in surprise when the manager came in with us behind him. I pushed the banker away from me and covered them with my gun. Pearl got her own gun out after she locked the door.
“Go around and see if they have any guns,” I told her.
Pearl, holding the stubby revolver, went from cage to cage. “No guns,” she called out. Then to make sure, she made them take off their coats. “No gu
ns,” she repeated.
The manager tried a bluff. “This is crazy! There’s no money here, not a cent.”
I pointed to the door of the manager’s office and told Pearl to take the three tellers in there. Taking rawhide thongs from her bag, she herded them inside. I walked the manager over to the door so I could be sure she was tying them tight.
Pearl finished with the rawhide, and then she gagged them and put them on the floor. In the distance we heard the blast of a steam whistle; the train would be pulling into the depot in a few minutes.
Pearl came out and took off her sunbonnet and dusted off her clothes. “Do I look like a bank teller?” she asked me.
“I’d give you money anytime,” I said. Then I turned to the manager, who looked about to collapse from fright. “Mister,” I said. “I’ll kill you if I have to. I don’t want to, but I will. I know the money shipment will be here soon and how much. Now, it’s not your money, so why die for it?”
“Why indeed!” he said, sweating like a pig.
“Good,” I said. “I like a man with sense. So here’s what we do. I’ll be in your office with the door open a crack. I can see you and the vault from there. Do anything—anything at all—and I’ll kill you with a bullet through the head. Dive for the floor and you’ll be dead before you get there. No matter who dies, you die first.”
“I don’t want to die, first or last. Just take the money and let me live.”
“You’ll live if you’re smart. When they knock you let them in. They’ll come in with the money, you open the safe, sign a receipt for the money. If they want to hang around and talk a while, then let them talk. Don’t rush them out and, for Christ’s sake, stop shaking. You’ll be all right. Think of all the years ahead of you.”
The banker mopped his face and took a deep breath. “You won’t get any trouble from me. You mind if I sit down?”
