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?”
