by Tabor Evans
"I didn't look at it quite that way," Longarm said thoughtfully. "But I sure noticed how you changed when you decided to be Dolly."
"It's made me feel so good, I can even stand going up to the Starr's house to eat, even with Belle buzzing around. And I'm getting hungry, thinking about supper, so let's go."
As they reached the cluster of cabins, the door to Floyd's cabin opened, and Floyd came out and walked toward them. Longarm was just about to tell Dolly to be ready to get out of the way if she saw Floyd going for his gun, when the outlaw stopped and spread his arms wide, his hands at mid-thigh. He was not wearing a gun.
Floyd raised his voice and called, "I want to talk to you a minute, Windy."
Longarm waited until there was only a gap of five or six feet between them before he asked, "You mean, talk private?"
"Yeah. Just you and me." Longarm said to Dolly, "You go ahead up to the house. I'll follow along as soon as Floyd and me get through talking." As the girl moved away, he asked Floyd, "You want to go inside, or just stay here and gab?"
"It won't take long for me to say what's on my mind."
"All right, fire away."
Floyd had trouble getting out the first words. "I-damn it, I don't feel right yet about you gunning down Mckee. you might as well know that from the start."
"I wasn't looking for you to change your mind, Floyd, even if you know what was behind that as well as I do. Mckee wasn't a man to forget taking a whipping."
"He never told me anybody'd wiped him up in a fight."
"You and Mckee partnered a long time, so I guess you'd know him pretty well. Would he be likely to tell you something like that?"
"No," Floyd said slowly. "No, I guess not. Well, anyhow, I've cooled down about you and him. You and Belle both told me it wasn't my affair, and I got to admit you're right."
"Glad to hear that. I wasn't looking to have a run-in with you."
"That ain't what I wanted to say, though. If you're of a mind to join me and Steed and Bobby in this job we've got set up, we'll let you come in."
"That your idea?" Longarm asked. "Or Belle's?"
"It was Belle's idea at the start. You know that damned well. Now that I've come to see things her way, I guess you can say it's my idea, too."
"I don't know, Floyd. I'd just about made up my mind to move on," Longarm said. "I still think I might."
"This is about as safe a place as you'll find, if you're on the prod, Windy. If it was me, I'd stay."
"Well, I ain't decided yet. And I don't know anything about this job of yours, so I can't say yes or no to you about coming in."
"It's a big one. There's going to be a lot of money to split. You might as well have a share of it."
"If it comes off," Longarm put in.
"It'll come off," Floyd said confidently.
"How many ways are you figuring to split?"
"If you come in, five. Me, Steed, Bobby, and you will take a full share each. Belle and Sam get one between 'em."
"How much are you figuring the take will come to? Because splitting nothing five ways leaves all of us with zero."
"Belle say-"
Longarm broke in emphatically, "I don't give a pile of hot cow shit for what Belle says. I'm asking you, man to man."
"Seven thousand, at least. Maybe more."
Longarm squinted as he did a quick calculation. "That'd make the split fifteen, sixteen hundred. That don't hardly seem enough to make it worth my trouble, Floyd."
"Belle says it could go as high as ten thousand. Anyhow, we'll all be taking the same risk."
"Belle talks like shit out of a goose that's been fed green corn--hot and slick and plenty of it." Floyd said earnestly, "Look here, Windy, I know Belle's the biggest liar, but in this part of the country she's money in our pockets."
"I don't see how you figure that."
"Listen, I know as much as anybody does about Belle. I was with Jim Reed when we robbed the Austin mail coach outside of San Antonio. Belle did go out on a job or two with Reed. Then, after she settled down here with Sam, she done some rustling, mostly just buying up the rustled stock and switching brands and selling it up in Kansas or down in Texas. And she does some fencing too, for owlhoots who've picked up watches and rings and jewelry and whatnot, and need to turn it into cash. That's how she got started paying off the marshals and deputies in the little towns just outside of the Nation. She's got a lot of strings that keep the law tied up, that's why Belle's worth something to us."
Longarm studied Floyd's face for a moment, then nodded. "I see what you're getting at, Floyd. Maybe I misjudged Belle. I had her down as a blowhard, all show and no go, riding around with those silver-plated pistols, calling herself the Bandit Queen... And you and me both know Belle nor no other woman ever rode on a job with Frank and Jesse James, like she claims to have done."
"Sure Belle talks too much," Floyd agreed. "But most of her and Sam's split is going to pay for information and for having the marshal and deputies look the other way when we go out on this job."
"Well, that puts another light on it. I might just change my mind about moving on."
Floyd studied Longarm's face for a moment, then he said, "Tell me something straight, Windy. What's your real handle? The one the law knows you by?"
Longarm shook his head. "Not now, Floyd. It ain't that I don't trust you, but if I tell you that, you'll have an ace on me and I won't have a damn thing on you until after we've pulled a job together."
Floyd didn't like Longarm's answer, and showed his displeasure in his expression. Then he grinned wolfishly and said, "I guess that's a reasonable way to look at it. And you sure as hell know your way around. Well, how about it? Are you coming in?"
"Maybe, after I've heard a little more than I know now."
"More, meaning what?"
"If you don't see that, Floyd, you're not as smart as I took you to be. Tell you what. Right now, I'm as hungry as a bitch wolf right after cubbing. Let's you and Steed and the boy and me set down and jaw with Belle after supper. If I like what I hear, I'll tell you then whether I'm in or out."
CHAPTER 11
There were too many at supper for the table to accommodate. Belle put Longarm, Dolly, Floyd, Steed, and Bobby at the table, and held a place for herself. Sam and Yazoo ate, bending forward uncomfortably in their Chairs, over one of the benches that had been brought in from the porch and placed near the stove. Sam pieced out a meal in quick gulps between jumping up in response to Belle's frequent calls for him to replenish the dishes on the table.
Longarm was sure that Belle knew of the talk he'd had with Floyd; the outlaw had held a whispered session with her in one corner of the room before they'd sat down. He'd looked for the air to be cleared by his grudging half-decision to join the gang in their job, wherever and whatever it was, but the atmosphere still stayed taut.
There was very little conversation during the meal, in spite of the tongue-loosing that might have been expected from the drinks poured by Floyd and Steed from the fresh bottles of corn liquor Yazoo had brought with him from the stillhouse. Longarm filled a glass out of politeness, but took only the smallest sips possible. Despite the whiskey they consumed, though, Floyd and Steed were unusually silent.
What talk did pass around the table was dominated by Belle. She had been cheerful until she saw Dolly doing as Longarm had requested, clinging to him and lifting her face to him with admiring glances, then she had frozen up. She chattered at length about her children, Ed and Pearl and their problems with the schools they were attending in Missouri. As though by al consent, unhappy subjects such as the deaths of Mckee and Taylor weren't mentioned.
Longarm grew more and more disgusted as the meal progressed. He'd thought that, with Floyd's unexpected thawing-out, there would be enough table talk to give him a pretty good idea of the kind of outlawry that was in the offing.
"We'll go out on the porch," Belle announced when she saw that everyone had finished eating. "Sam's going to need to clean up in here and
wash the dishes. Yazoo, you'd better help him, since there's such a pile of them."
Outside, the air was cool in the early, moonless night. Lamplight from the door spilled out as they found places. Belle and Floyd took the remaining bench; Longarm, with Dolly doing her duty by clinging to him, stood in a corner of the porch, where he could see the other four in the best light. He wasn't looking for trouble, but knew by instinct that getting a good position in a chancy situation could be the difference between winning and losing. Steed and Bobby settled down on the step; their faces were the only ones that caught the lamplight. Those of the others were vague, whitish blurs in the dark.
Belle said, "I'm glad you finally made up your mind, Windy. Of course, if you hadn't decided to come in, Sam and I would have gone along. But now that-"
"Wait a minute," Steed broke in. "If we're going to talk about the job, what about the girl there?"
"What about her?" Longarm asked. "She's with me."
"I'm sure all of us noticed that," Belle said acidly.
"You know what we decided," Steed went on. "No talking except amongst us, Belle. No outsiders."
"I'm not an outsider," Dolly said. "Lonnie was coming here to join up with you, and he wouldn't have brought me if he hadn't thought it was all right."
"Taylor's one thing," Steed insisted. "Me and Floyd knew him. We don't know a damn thing about Windy."
Longarm didn't see much point in setting everybody's temper on edge with an argument at the very beginning. He said, "All right. She's not going to be here long, anyhow, but if you don't want her around while we're talking, I guess she won't mind going back to the cabin."
"I'll go if you say so, Windy." There was sugar in Dolly's voice, and she leaned back to look sweetly at Longarm.
"If Floyd and Steed don't want her around, she'd better go," Belle said. "What we've got to talk about won't take long."
"Go on, then, Dolly," Longarm nodded. "I'll be along after while."
"Now, then," Belle began when Dolly had flounced off, "I guess we're all glad that Windy's going to ride with us."
"He is?" Bobby asked. "I didn't know that."
"I just hadn't had time to pass the word to you," Floyd told him. "Go on, Belle. Windy still ain't sure. Says he wants to know more about how much we figure the take's going to be and where we're expecting to get it." Longarm said curtly, "I don't buy a pig in a poke, Belle. I made that plain to Floyd when we talked before supper."
"Don't worry," Belle replied confidently. "There'll be a good split. Crops are coming in at this time of the year, you know, and all the banks keep a lot of cash on hand. Farmers pay back what they've borrowed, and the factors that buy the big crops need money to operate with. There's not a bank across the Arkansas line that won't be good for ten to fifteen thousand if it's hit inside of the next month."
"Sounds reasonable," Longarm said, "provided you know which bank to pick out. And if you're damn sure which one's going to be the easiest to take."
"I told you not to worry," Belle retorted. "I know which of the banks in Fort Smith-"
"Fort Smith?" Longarm interrupted. "That sounds awful damned risky. A lot of town marshals there. Sheriff's deputies too, and a whole big bunch of federal marshals. At least that's the way I heard it."
"I explained to him how you've got strings out on a lot of the law, Belle," Floyd said quickly. "But Windy still ain't satisfied. Maybe you can tell him more than I could."
"I'm sure I could, but I don't intend to," Belle said tartly. She swiveled on the bench to face Longarm. "I just wanted to see what you'd say when I mentioned Fort Smith, Windy, but I'm like you--I wouldn't look at that place twice. No, we won't be taking one of the banks there, not with just four men. We'll go to one of the little places. There's three or four towns a little way over the Arkansas line where there's only one bank, but it'll have close to twenty thousand in the safe for the next month. And it's in the little towns where I've got the marshals hogtied."
"I like that better," Longarm told her. "Now, when will we be riding?"
"Not for a few days." Belle frowned. "Maybe a week. I've got to hear from my friends across the line before I'll know when the right time will be."
Longarm nodded. "That suits me fine. I've got a little business of my own that I need to take care of. I can tend to it and get back in plenty of time."
"What kind of business?" Floyd asked; suspicion dripped from his words.
"Not anything real important. I promised Dolly I'd take her to the train so she can go home." He dropped into a deprecating tone and added, "She's getting to bother me. I can't afford to have a woman like her hanging on me, you men know that."
"Yeah," Floyd replied. He seemed relieved. "well, I don't see anything wrong with that. Do you, Belle?"
"No. I'll be as glad as Windy will be to get her away from here. Taylor made a mistake in bringing her along with him in the first place." Steed asked Longarm, "It's all settled, then?"
"If you men and Belle are satisfied, so am I." He turned to Belle. "We'll be coming back here to Younger's Bend to hole up after the job, I expect? I don't feel like I want to go back on the prod right away."
"That's something else you won't have to worry about, Windy," Belle said. "You make a clean getaway without any federal marshals chasing you into the Nation, and you'll be safe from the law here as long as you feel like staying."
"All right. It's settled as far as I'm concerned, then." Longarm stood up. "Now I'll go down to the cabin and tell the girl to get ready to ride into Fort Smith tomorrow. And as soon as I get her on the train to Kansas, I'll be back."
"You guarantee we can count on that?" Floyd asked.
"You damn sure can, Floyd," Longarm said feelingly. "This is one job I don't intend to miss out on!"
An excited, sparkling-eyed Dolly greeted Longarm at the door of the cabin. She said, her words tumbling out all over each other, "Come look what I've found, Windy!"
She took Longarm's hand and led him to the table. A pile of currency rose from its center. Around the edges were a half-dozen items: a sheath knife, a pile of pistol cartridges, two pairs of socks, several bandannas, a tin cup, three battered cigars with split wrappers, a block of matches, a bag of ground coffee, and some scraggy scraps of jerky. The heap of greenbacks dominated everything, however.
"Looks like there's quite a wad there," Longarm said.
"Nearly a thousand dollars. I counted it."
"It's out of Taylor's saddlebags, ain't it?" Longarm asked.
"Yes. I wanted to bathe, and looked in them for some soap. And there it was, all that money."
"Must be what he got when he left you in that cave."
"Of course. I'm sure it is. He held up a bank, I guess. I don't know where, or anything about it. Lonnie didn't tell me. But that doesn't matter, Windy. I want you to have it. You've been so good to me."
Longarm looked at the money thoughtfully. If he took it, he'd see that it got back somehow to the place Taylor had stolen it from. He'd just hand it over to Gower and let him see to returning it. But he couldn't tell Dolly that, and felt he ought to press her to keep it. A false step now might endanger the image he'd created with Belle and the outlaws.
He said, "I don't need a dead man's money, Dolly. You're entitled to it. You'll need it. We're going out tomorrow to Fort Smith, and I'll see you on a train for wherever you feel like heading."
"No. It'd remind me of Lonnie and Susanna Mudgett. I want to forget both of them."
"All right. If you're sure you don't want it, I'll keep it, and I thank you most kindly."
"You said we were going out tomorrow? That's something else I have to thank you for."
Dolly threw her arms around Longarm and raised herself on tiptoe to kiss him. He bent to meet her, expecting the kiss to be only a friendly one. It turned into something more. Dolly's tongue pushed his lips apart, and Longarm responded as any man would. He caught Dolly up in his arms and pulled her to him. Her hips pushed against his groin and he felt hims
elf getting hard.
Dolly broke the kiss to whisper, "It's getting late, and if we're going to start traveling tomorrow, we'll need to rest tonight, Windy. Don't you think it's about time you blew out the lamp so we can go to bed?"
"If you want to," Longarm replied. Then, as an afterthought, he asked, "This ain't something more like the money, is it? You ain't asking me just because you feel like you owe me something?"
"No. I wanted you to come to bed with me when I woke up this morning and saw you looking at me. I've wanted all day for you to grab me up and hold me and kiss me, but you never did make a move to."
Longarm blew out the lamp before he said, "I guess I figured it was too soon after-"
"After Lonnie?" she finished for him. "I guess it would be, for Susanna. But I'm Dolly now, remember?"
Side by side in the sudden darkness, they groped along the cabin wall until they reached one of the bunks. Longarm heard the soft rustling of cloth as Dolly drew her dress over her head. She pushed against him and the delicate fragrance of freshly soaped woman-skin wafted to his nostrils. He felt her fingers find his as he unbuckled his gunbelt and laid it beside the bunk, then she was working at the buttons of his trousers as he undid his shirt. He stepped out of his pants and stripped off his balbriggans. Then Dolly's flesh pressed against his.
The hard nipples of her round, soft breasts brushed across his chest, and her hands ran down his lean hips and found his growing erection. She guided it between her thighs and closed her legs. Pulling his head down, Dolly found Longarm's lips while she moved her hips gently back and forth.
Longarm was hard now, but Dolly seemed in no hurry, and he was contented to let her set the timing. He cupped his hand around her breast. His calloused fingers moved back and forth between their close-pressed bodies, rubbing a nipple almost as hard, now, as his fingertips.
Dolly changed the motion and rhythm of her hips. She began rotating them while still rocking back and forth. Longarm lifted her and eased her to the narrow bunk, lowering himself on top of her.
