by Gene Curry
“This won’t wait till morning, Cassidy. Get Etta out on the porch to stand guard. I caught O’Day snooping around just after she left. Fell over a bucket and I caught him. Pretended to be drunk. I pretended to believe him. He heard everything she said, every dumb thing you told her to say.”
“Well, I’ll be a dirty dog,” the Kid said. “You sure he heard?”
“Positive.”
Butch called Etta and she came out with a sullen face. “I’m going,” she said. “You and your ideas, Cassidy.” We pulled chairs close to the table. I told about O’Day and kept it short. Butch didn’t look so confident and carefree by the time I’d finished.
“You should have strangled him if you didn’t want to use the gun,” Butch said, chiding me for my lack of forethought. “We could have buried him in the dead of night.”
I glared at him. “You don’t know who else might have been watching. They could be watching right now.”
The Kid swore softly. “What’s the difference! They know by this time. Now they’ll all go over to Tracy. I think we better get set for a showdown.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “Anyway, not right off. But you have to tell them about the robbery sooner than you planned. If they think there’s all that money at stake, it’s likely they’ll hold off till we get it. I’d say tell them tonight, only that would look suspicious. First thing in the morning, is when you tell them.”
Butch had painted himself into a corner and he knew it. “What if they decide to go after the money on their own? There’s ten of them and four of us. I think we better get Pearl and Laura on our side.”
The Kid knew what I was thinking. “O’Day may have warned the girls as well as Tracy. I’d better go and see if they’re to bed.”
A few minutes later the Kid came back shaking his head. “Bed’s still warm but they’re not in it. O’Day didn’t waste any time getting to them.”
I said, “Then that makes twelve against four. I still think they’ll avoid a showdown right now. O’Day knows we’re going to rob a bank in some town. That’s all he knows. He heard Etta talking to me, but I knew what she was talking about and he didn’t. There’s a bank to be robbed and we have a plan for it. O’Day or Tracy can’t know what that plan is. There’s a double cross in the air, and maybe they know that already, but not when or where. Cassidy, I don’t even know where.”
The Kid gnawed on his mustache, his only sign of edginess. “So what’s your thinking, Saddler?”
“First, I don’t think O’Day knows I spotted him as a sneak. So he doesn’t think we know. In the morning we all act like nothing’s happened. I don’t mean me, I mean you—you and Butch. Call them together and lay out the robbery for them. Tell the bastards everything, the information you got from this railroad man, the trap he’s setting up, how we’re going to rob the money when it gets to the bank. Tell it straight, Cassidy. For the love of Christ, this time no tricks.”
Butch looked gloomy, and had no jokes or smiles. “That’ll give them time to plan their own double cross.” He brightened up a little. “Maybe we can get the girls back on our side.”
I said not likely. “They’d be fools if they believed you. Face it, Cassidy, they’ve gone over to Tracy. I hate to say it, but you just gave Tracy every fucking thing he needs.” Butch tried to get tricky again. “I got an idea. You go to Tracy and beg pardon for beating up on him. Tell him everything Etta told you and how you said no dice to that. O’Day will bear that out. There’s a chance they’ll let you in on what they’re planning to do. Then you get word back to us, and we’re all set.”
As a rule the Kid didn’t go against Cassidy. Now he did. “You got to stop this horseshit. Sending Etta over to Saddler has fucked up everything. Quit your scheming and listen to hard facts. Tracy knows there is going to be a double cross. It’s supposed to come after you’re turned over to the Pinks by Etta and me. That won’t happen, so he has to figure where the double cross is planned for next. Only one thing is certain: there can’t be any double-crossing until we get that money.”
“Where do you think?” Butch asked.
The Kid looked tired. “If I knew that, or could figure it out, believe me I’d tell you in a shot. All I know is yesterday we had twelve people on our side. Now we got nobody but Saddler.”
Grim-faced, the Kid said to me, “You got any ideas?”
“Not right this minute. I’ll think about it.” I yawned and looked outside and was hungry in spite of everything. First light was brighter than usual and from the looks of the sky there would be a gaudy sunrise. Etta opened the door and said nothing was happening. “They’re not making a move,” she said.
Sundance went to get the rest of his clothes on. “I’ll take over,” he said.
“Better not,” I said. “The sight of you sitting out there at first light won’t look so good. Let’s just eat breakfast and see what happens. If they come with guns, we’ll just have to make a fight of it.”
Coming in to start breakfast, Etta glared at us. “A fine army we got here. Three generals and no troops.”
We ate breakfast with our rifles lying across our knees, and as usual Etta smoked more than she ate. It wasn’t a cheerful meal by any means. The gaudy sunrise came as promised, but did nothing to lift our spirits. Thanks to Cassidy’s stupid trickery, what had once been a fairly good plan was wrecked. Getting the drop on Tracy wouldn’t have been easy, but now it looked close to impossible. Twelve against four were lousy odds. At this point Cassidy couldn’t even call off the robbery. If he called it off it would bring the showdown all that closer.
Etta went to the window and looked out. “They’re up earlier than usual,” she said. “Usually they lie in bed half the day.”
I went to look and saw smoke from cook stoves rising up straight into the early morning sky. The grass looked very green in the bright sunlight. The mud was beginning to dry.
Etta sat down and pushed a fried egg around her plate, not caring if she caught it or not. Suddenly her black eyes glowed with something that wasn’t altogether anger. I think she saw the end drawing near and wanted to go out and meet it halfway. She yanked her belt gun and checked the loads in the cylinder. After she pushed the loading gate shut, she put the pistol on the table instead of dropping it back in its holster.
“What the hell!” she said. “It’s finished, let’s get it over with. Twelve of them, four of us. That means we have to kill three apiece.”
Impending danger hadn’t dulled Cassidy’s appetite. He was surprised by her sudden burst of ferocity. “No way to ambush them in here.”
“Who’s talking about an ambush?” Etta placed her small hand on the heavy revolver. “I’m talking about this. Soon as you finish stuffing your gut we’ll go out and meet them head on. Let Saddler ride out. He’s got nothing to do with this.”
Now it was my turn to be surprised, though I didn’t say anything.
“Give him the password to get out of here,” Etta said. “Then it’s just the three of us. What’s the difference how we die. Might as well be here as in front of a bank or along the right of way.”
Butch told Etta to put the gun away. “We’re not dead yet. It’s like Saddler says. There won’t be a showdown till after we get the money. Dying later is better than sooner.”
“That’s some consolation,” Etta sneered. “You wouldn’t be afraid of dying, would you, Cassidy?” Butch shrugged. “I’d rather you didn’t rush me into it.”
The Kid ate everything he had piled on his plate, and that was plenty. “I can’t figure what we’re going to do after the robbery. It’ll still be twelve against four. Not a hope they’ll let us get out of their sight. Lady and gents, I don’t see how we’re going to get out of this.”
“Well what are you looking at?” I asked. Cassidy had been staring at me.
Butch said, “I’m looking at you, my friend. For a man that’s got so much to say, you been keeping mighty quiet. Ain’t you got no ideas how to kill them off or whittle them down to
better odds. You talk so straight, you have to be a bigger crook than I am. The crookedest man I ever knew, a merchant, had a big sign on his wall. You know what it said? Honesty Is the Best Policy.”
I dropped my fork with a clatter and got some steak juice on my shirt. They all looked at me like I was about to have a fit.
“Jesus Christ!” I said. “That’s how we’ll whittle them down. Cassidy will tell them the truth. Shut up a minute and listen. They know you’re planning some kind of double cross. They’re hopping mad by this time, mad enough to kill, mad enough to nail you to the cross, or stake you out on an anthill.”
“Is that the latest news?” Butch said.
Sundance cut in. “Let him talk.”
I said, “You know what the preachers say? Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. It’s like that with every man out there. Not a one of them hasn’t thought of double-crossing somebody sometime. Maybe some of them have done it already. They’re robbers, aren’t they? Not a one isn’t a dirty, thieving robber like you, Cassidy.”
“True,” Butch said.
“So you were tempted. What man isn’t tempted to double-cross his pals? With all that money it’s only natural. For a hundred thousand dollars, I’d be tempted myself. You’re greedy, you want it all for yourself, tell them. So would they. But now you find you can’t do it. You’ve all been friends too long, have been through too much together. Now you’re ashamed of your greedy thoughts and want to share and share alike.”
Butch protested. “We never shared like that. Me and Harry and Etta always took half and they had equal shares of the rest.”
I said, “This time it’ll be equal shares for all. You want to whittle them down, that’s how to do it.”
Sundance expressed his doubts. “The showdown will come when we divvy up the money in some safe place. Say there’s a hundred thousand. In equal shares that’s a little over six thousand and between the four of us that comes to twenty-four thousand dollars. If we go to a safe place to divvy up the money they’ll be expecting a trick. The minute the money sacks hit the ground they’ll open up on us. We can’t hope to win.”
“That’s not what Saddler means,” Etta said.
“Your safe place isn’t the same as mine,” I went on. “What worries a bandit the most after a robbery? That he won’t get his money. So he sticks close to the money until it’s divided. He sticks to it like glue.”
“Tell us something new,” Butch growled.
I delivered my clincher. “This time we do it different—we divvy the money right there in the bank. That’ll take time, I grant you that. But the bank isn’t open so we have some time. We lay the money out and count it and give every man his share. Who’s going to argue against that?”
The Kid said, “Harry Tracy is. Tracy will want to keep that money in one lump. So he can get it later and maybe not share it at all.”
“The boys won’t go for that though,” I said. “Six thousand in a man’s pocket weighs heavier than a lot of promises. Unless I’m wrong, the boys will take their six thousand and get the hell out of there. They can go one at a time. The gang is finished and they’ll be looking to go where the Pinkertons aren’t so thick.”
The Kid drummed his fingers on the table. Butch frowned while he thought.
“They won’t all go their own way, Pinks or no Pinks. Some will stay with Tracy,” the Kid said.
That was true. I said, “If half of them take their money and run, that leaves only six we have to face when they come after us. They’ll come all right. Six thousand won’t satisfy Tracy. He’ll be looking to add our twenty-four thousand to his take. But he’ll want more than that. He’ll want us dead, all of us for different reasons.”
Butch said, “Tracy would like to form a new Wild Bunch, with him as the leader. Hell! I can’t let him do that. A man like him would drag the name through the mud.”
I waited until Cassidy got through expressing his indignation. “He’ll do worse than that if he takes us alive.” I told them about Harry Tracy and his new-style handcuffs and what he used them for. “If he takes us alive we’ll get a taste of that Tracy has to die no matter what. The others with him aren’t that important.”
Butch stood up and checked his gun. “I’d best whistle them down here and see how they take it. If they don’t buy my wares, I’ll take Tracy. The rest of you kill anybody you can.”
“No,” I said. “Not now. We’ll all kill Tracy when the time comes. If we have to die it won’t be so bad, knowing he’s dead.”
Sundance nodded agreement. “Same thing goes for me.
Etta turned away from the window and her face was hard and tight, but not afraid. I knew then that Cassidy wouldn’t have to do any hog calling to assemble his gang.
“They’re coming,” Etta said.
Ten
If killing had to come, it was a nice day for it. A bright, sunny day with white, fleecy clouds high in the sky. It was the kind of day when you can hear the flowers grow, if you listen hard enough. But instead of flowers we heard a lot of boots getting closer to the cabin. We moved apart and took up our positions and waited.
The door was open and the porch creaked under their weight as they all stepped up together. Harry Tracy was in the lead and along with the gun in his holster he had another pistol stuck in the waistband of his pants. His face looked like a cavalry troop had run over it. Blood caked his fleshy mouth and his nose was flat and no longer centered in the middle of his face. Pearl, pretty but tense, stood beside him. Beauty and the beast, I thought. Every man and woman in the Wild Bunch was there, and the only one missing was the original Butch Cassidy.
“You look like a committee,” Cassidy said. “Come on in. Sorry there ain’t enough chairs for everybody.”
They trooped in with wary eyes, Harry Tracy in the lead, Pearl right behind him. I think Pearl saw herself as the new Etta Place, the new queen of the Wild Bunch. The others followed, but there was no chorus of howdies and good mornings, as there might have been a day earlier. Tom O’Day brought up the rear like the brave feller he was. But he was resolute enough, in a shaky way.
We faced off, twelve against four. I knew Kilpatrick, Big Nose Curry, Will Carver, Billy Reeves, and Stitch Fallon. The rest of the men I didn’t know at all, but they looked mean enough. Two looked like brothers, though one was a good ten years older than the other. The door was open, but the big room smelled of sweat and whiskey.
Butch stepped away from the wall to give his gun hand free play. The rest of us stayed where we were. Butch was smiling, but the smile didn’t get as far as his eyes. We’ll know in a minute, I thought. Tracy’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Cassidy.
Butch said quickly, “Ain’t this a coincidence though. I was about to call a meeting of the clan and here you folks are without me saying a word. Now, why don’t you loosen up and listen to what I have to say. You want to or not?”
Harry Tracy had his feet planted wide and his hand wasn’t far from his gun. “It could be past time for talking, Cassidy. Me and the boys have been deciding a few things.”
“Sure you have,” Butch said easily. “Let me guess what you been talking about. We ain’t pulled any jobs lately, and the money ain’t coming in like it used to. You’re sick of the Hole and the rain and the long days with nothing to do. Well, boys, so am I. That’s what I want to talk to you about. What would you say if I told you we’re about to pull the biggest job ever pulled in these parts?”
Tracy sneered. “I’d say you was just talking.”
Cassidy’s eyes narrowed but his gun hand didn’t move. “Walk soft,” he warned. “I’ll say it again, boys. I’m talking about more money than you ever saw before. I didn’t tell you before ’cause I wasn’t sure we could do it. Hell! I been craving some real action bad as the rest of you. Only there was nothing worth the trouble. What did you want me to do? Lead you out of here to stick up a dry goods store? Maybe get some of us killed for a few hundred dollars? You know as well as I do that the P
inks and the railroad shooters are all over the country.”
“Anything is better than doing nothing,” Pearl said. “You been talking a big job a long time, Butch. One day it’s this, the next day it’s something else.”
Butch said, “This job is the real McCoy. I had to keep it under my hat till I figured out how to do it. Now I have. It won’t be a snap, but it can be done. Now you want to hear about it, or did you come here to bitch about hard times?”
Ben Kilpatrick, lanky and slow talking, pushed his way to the front. “You better not be bullshitting, Cassidy. I been with you a long time, but there comes a time when a man has to look out for himself. It’s like you been forgetting who your friends are.”
Butch did his best to look contrite. “Maybe I have, Ben, and I beg pardon for it. Things change, a man changes. It was different when we could range this country like free men, taking what we wanted, nobody daring to stand up to us. You’re a smart man, Ben. How long do you think we can go on?”
Ben Kilpatrick shrugged his bony shoulders and kicked at the floor like it was dirt. “The way they been chasing us, not much longer. We damn near got killed that last job over in Bear Paw.”
Harry Tracy scowled as only he could. “Talk for yourself, Kilpatrick. The Wild Bunch has been going a long time and can last till kingdom come. All it takes is sand and guts.”
Butch took another step forward though it was hardly the smartest thing to do. “You’re welcome to stay in these mountains as long as you like, Tracy. You can throw your guts at the Pinks and blind them with your sand. Now does anybody in this gang want to hear about the robbery?”
Ben Kilpatrick nodded slowly. “Tell it, Butch. We’ll hear you out.”
Everybody shut up while Cassidy told about the shipment of money, how his man on the railroad thought it should be taken, the river curve, the long grade, the pried-up rail, the string of passenger cars jam-packed with Pinkertons and posse men.
“We might as well ride into a rapid-fire gun,” Butch said.