“Just how’d you get the news of that mint shipment, Belle? If you don’t mind telling me, that is,” Longarm asked.
“My whiskey customers pay me in more ways than with money, Windy. They carry messages, too.” Belle smiled wisely. “I can’t be riding into Eufaula every day just to pick up mail. Besides, I don’t trust the mail. How do I know the federal marshals and the post office don’t work in cahoots?”
Longarm could have told her that nothing could be further from the truth. He remembered a half-dozen times when a look at a piece of suspected mail might have saved a case for him, but Billy Vail had never been able to get the cooperation of the postal officials in allowing mail going through their hands to be opened. He said nothing, of course, just nodded understandingly.
Floyd said, “So that’s why you went along with Yazoo today! Damn it, Belle, you might’ve said something before now. Me and Steed have been wondering all along just how you was going to find out when this job ought to be pulled.”
“I don’t tell everybody my business,” Belle said tartly. “If everybody knew what I know, or how I work things out, I’d lose my edge.”
“All right, never mind that now,” Floyd told her. “If the bank’s going to have all that money on hand in three or four days, we’d better get cracking.”
“We’re still going to be short a man, even with Windy joining in,” Steed pointed out.
“No. Sam’s going with you,” Belle said. “We’ve known all along the job needs five men. There’ll be one at the end of the block on each side of the bank, and three to do the inside work. What you and Floyd and Windy have got to work out is who’s going to go in and who’s going to be the outside guards.”
“Mat’s easy enough,” Floyd said. “It’s just good sense for me and Steed and Windy to handle the bank. Now that my mind’s at rest about Windy, I figure he’s the equal of me and Steed any day. He’ll keep cool and move fast, and if there’s shooting, he’ll handle it quick and straight.”
“Oh, now wait a minute, Floyd!” Bobby protested. “I was in with you and Steed before Windy come along. It seems to me it’s only right that I’d go inside. That’s where the fun will be.”
“Hold up there, Bobby,” Longarm told the youth. “This ain’t no play-party we’re going on. It’s business.”
“You think I don’t know that, Windy?” Bobby shot back. “And I can do anything you can, as good as you can. Sure, Floyd and Steed think you’re right big of a much now, because you killed that officer in Fort Smith. Well, that don’t make you one bit better than me!”
“That’s enough, Bobby!” Floyd commanded. “You and Steed both agreed when we started out on this job that I was going to have the last word. All right, I’m giving you the last word now. You and Sam will be the outside guards. Me and Steed and Windy will take care of the inside work.”
Bobby didn’t look happy, but he subsided. Longarm turned to Belle. “I still don’t know where this bank is we’re going to take.”
“You don’t, do you, Windy? Well, neither does Floyd or Steed or Bobby. Or Sam, either, for that matter. The only one who knows that is me, and I’m not going to tell anybody until the very last minute.”
“Now wait a minute, Belle!” Floyd flared. “You never said that before. That’s no goddamn way to work! I’m with Windy. I want to know where we’re going, how long it’s going to take us to get there, what we can look for, and how we’ll get away.”
“I’ll give you part of it, Floyd,” she answered. “But not everything.”
“You better tell us the whole layout, Belle,” Longarm said. “I told you once before, I don’t buy a pig in a poke.”
Longarm was anxious to get the whole picture. He still had a few days during which he could manage to find a way to get word to Gower where the gang planned to strike, and set up the trap that would catch the entire bunch. With Sam in custody, he was pretty sure that either Belle or Sam would talk.
“This is one pig you’ll buy without seeing it,” Belle said. The emphasis she gave her words left no doubt in Longarm’s mind that she couldn’t be argued around. She went on, “Now, you don’t need to know where the bank is, not yet. The fewer people who know that, the less chance there is of word getting out about the job.”
“You might be right about that part of it, Belle,” Longarm began.
Belle cut him off short. “I know damn well I’m right about the whole plan, Windy. Now shut up, all of you, and I’ll tell you what you need to know. You can find out the rest later on.”
All of them listened intently while Belle explained the layout. “There would be no marshals or sheriffs deputies around to interfere, she guaranteed. There were only three in town, one deputy sheriff and two marshals, and she had two of the three in her pocket. They could be counted on to get the third man out of the way.
As for the bank, it was in the middle of the block. The two men outside could guard the street in both directions and keep anybody from getting close while the holdup was taking place. The outside men would hold the reins of the horses ridden by the three who’d go in. There might be a private guard inside the bank; some of them hired a man when there was a lot of extra money on hand. Handling him would be up to the men who went in. They’d also have to get the tellers and bank officers away from their desks, because all of them had weapons close at hand.
At ten o’clock, the time set for the holdup, the bank would have been open two hours, so the vault was sure to be open. The inside men would divide the loot among themselves; she’d see that they had sacks to put it in. The whole job shouldn’t take more than four or five minutes, and then they’d all be riding out.
Their approach and escape routes would be mapped out for them by Sam, the night before. They’d be stopping at a place she and Sam knew well. At that time, they’d also work out what to do in the event they had to separate during their getaway.
“So that’s the way it’s going to work,” Belle said firmly as she concluded her explanation. “Now, what day do you want to move, Floyd?
I’ll have to send a letter to the man who’s handling things for me, when I go to Eufaula tomorrow.”
