“We might, and we might not,” Belle replied. “I haven’t made up my mind yet. But I’ve seen Windy in action. I know what he can do.”
“Now let’s stop this kind of talk right here,” Longarm said firmly. “I feel just about like Floyd does, but maybe not for the same reasons. Belle, before you start including me in any job you and Floyd or anybody else has cooked up, you better find out first if I want to be cut in.”
“I just haven’t gotten around to it yet, Windy. But it’s a big job, and there’ll be good money in it for all of us.”
“That’s as it may be. But I don’t know anything about Floyd or Steed or Bobby. Or, come right down to it, about you and Sam, except for what I’ve heard here and there. I don’t say I won’t talk about getting in, but I don’t let anybody put me up for anything before I say yes.”
“Strikes me you’re just a mite too damn particular for us to fool with, Windy,” Floyd said.
“Maybe I am, but I’m still walking around, and I aim to stay this way. I won’t go into anything blind,” Longarm said flatly.
Sam Starr interrupted the discussion by dropping plates with a clatter on the tabletop. “Breakfast’s ready,” he announced. “Sit down and eat before it gets cold.”
“We’ll talk about things later,” Belle said as she moved toward the table. She might have been addressing either Longarm or Floyd. “Let’s get breakfast over so Sam can clean things up. He’s got a job to get to right away.”
Halfway through the silent, strained meal, Yazoo joined them. He came in with two bottles of whiskey under each arm, and set a bottle at each end of the table before depositing the other two in one of the KC Baking Powder boxes.
Floyd drank corn moonshine instead of coffee throughout the meal. The liquor, on his almost empty stomach, made him sleepy. He finished first and stood up unsteadily. “I’m going to get myself forty winks,” he announced to the table in general. “You go ahead and have your talk with Windy, Belle. Then you and me will sit down and settle things, once and for all.” When he’d gone, Belle said to Longarm, “We’ll have that talk while Sam and Yazoo are up at the grove burying Taylor. And don’t worry about Floyd. You can see how he’s coming around.”
Longarm didn’t see, but he wasn’t going to tell Belle that he hadn’t noticed much of a change in Floyd’s attitude. He’d be suspicious if Floyd did welcome him in on whatever illegal project Belle had come up with. In fact, the minute Floyd agreed to add him to the group, it would be a signal that the surly outlaw had decided to accept Longarm and use him in carrying out the job, with the idea that there would be a back-shooting or a fatal accident when things were over, which would keep Longarm from being on hand to claim a share of the loot. Bandits had been known to kill other bandits for no more reason than that, and in Floyd’s case there was the extra motive provided by Longarm’s killing of Mckee.
All of them had just about finished eating when Floyd left. In a few minutes, Sam Starr stood up and said, “Whenever you’re ready, we’ll go on up and do our job, Yazoo.”
“Guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” The old man stood up. He picked up one of the bottles from the table and put it under his arm. “I’ll just take this along, Sam. Grave-digging gets to be real dry work.”
“And don’t forget Steed and Bobby,” Belle reminded Sam. “I told them you’d bring some breakfast up to them.”
“I haven’t forgot,” Starr replied. “I’ll take care of them, Belle. You don’t have to worry.”
“We’ve got the place to ourselves until noon,” Belle told Longarm after Sam and Yazoo had gone. “Plenty of time for a private talk and a chance to get better acquainted.”
“Let’s get down to business, then,” Longarm said. “You know I’m not looking around for something to do right now. It ain’t like I was broke and needed to put a stake together.”
“I know that, Windy,” Belle broke in. “I saw that poke you’re carrying, remember, when you paid your rent yesterday. You must’ve pulled off a big job. It’s funny, though, I haven’t heard about any really big hauls lately. Where were you working?”
“Far enough away so the news wouldn’t have reached here yet. And in my regular line, there’s a lot of things I do that are kept quiet.”
That, Longarm thought, was the real truth.
“That money you’ve got won’t last forever, Windy,” Belle pointed out. “You’d be better off adding to it while you’ve got the chance than letting this job of mine slip by you. It’s big enough to interest you, I know. What I’ve got planned-“
“Now hold on a minute, Belle.” Longarm didn’t want to seem too anxious to learn the details of Belle’s scheme. He’d maneuvered her into inviting him in, and right now she’d reached the point where nothing in’the world was going to stop her from telling him all about it. The less interested he appeared to be, the harder she was going to try to get him in, which meant that she’d spill all the details of her plans, once he let her get started talking.
Longarm went on, “I better tell you first off that I’m not much for partnering. When a man works by himself, he’s got nobody to split with. And when the job’s finished, there’s nobody who can point a finger at him and say he did it.”
“Oh, I can understand that. I’ve only had one really good partner myself, and that was my first husband-” Belle stopped and then added hastily, “First except for Cole Younger, that is. Of course, Cole and me hadn’t been married long when he got caught, and he’s been in the pen ever since.”
“I recall Cole had some bad luck,” Longarm told her. “But I never was around the places where the Jameses and the Youngers worked.”
Belle was still caught up in her sentimental reminiscences. “I don’t guess you ever met my second husband, either. He was the one I meant when I said I’d only had one good partner. Jim Reed.” She looked at Longarm and sighed. “Except that Jim was darker, you remind me a lot of Jim.”
“I’ve heard a little bit about him,” Longarm said truthfully. “Got cut down while he was getting away from a mail-coach job, didn’t he?”
“Yes.” Belle stood up and began to pace back and forth across the small room. “Poor Jim would still be
