Belle laughed mockingly. “Your memory’s too short, Windy. I guess you haven’t been in the Nation long enough to remember that saloons are against the law here.”
Longarm frowned. “Now wait just a minute. That little town on this side of the Arkansas across from Fort Smith, the place they call Little Juarez. There’s plenty of saloons there.”
“And they pay plenty to stay open, too,” Belle retorted. “So do the saloons you’ll find in the Nation right on the Missouri border up north, and on this side of the Red River, down on the Texas line, where there’s a town on the other side.”
“Belle’s right, Windy,” Sam said. Bitterness crept into his tone as he went on, “Our Great White Father back in the East doesn’t think us Indians can hold our liquor. You know, we go crazy wild when we take a drink, and start killing all you white people.”
Belle added, “So the only liquor you’re going to find here in Eufaula is what we make out at the place, or what comes from one of the little whiskey ranches in the brush farther east And it’s none of it as good as the whiskey Yazoo turns out.”
Longarm turned to Sam. “But you’re going to buy bottles. Where from?”
“Jugs,” Sam told him. “We’ve got to save all the bottles we can get our hands on to send over into Arkansas. We deliver the whiskey here in jugs, and the customers bring their own bottles.”
“I’ll be damned,” Longarm said, shaking his head. “I never heard of such a damn fool thing.”
“Oh, we like it that way,” Belle told him. “The moonshine we make at the Bend pays the freight and a lot more. The jobs we pull off are all gravy.”
Longarm saw his plan to get away from Belle and Sam going up in smoke. He’d intended to work things out so that he’d have a few minutes by himself, enough time to Mail to Gower the note he’d written last night, telling him that the bank job had been set and advising him that as yet he hadn’t been able to learn which bank in which town would be the target.
He said, “Well, if that’s the way of it, I guess I’ll just walk around and stretch my legs while you two tend to your business.”
“You can help me, if you’ve a mind to,” Belle suggested. “Two of those mules have to be loaded with hundred-pound sacks of sugar. It’ll hurry things along if you’ll give the storekeeper a hand, and we might get started back to the Bend in time to miss getting caught in the rain.”
There wasn’t any way Longarm could see of avoiding Belle’s request. “Why, sure, Belle,” he said. “I’ll be glad to.” Sam said, “I’ll be on my way, then. It’ll take me an hour or more to make the rounds. I’ll meet you here at the store, and we can get some cheese and crackers and eat them before we start back.” He looked questioningly at Longarm and added, “If that’ll tide you over until supper, Windy. That’s about the best we can do here. There isn’t any restaurant.”
“That’ll suit me fine,” Longarm replied.
Starr untied the mule from his saddle-strings and set off on foot, leading the animal. Longarm watched him until he turned between two of the buildings and was out of sight, then he followed Belle into the store.
Longarm found the general store no different from a hundred others he’d seen in towns like Eufaula. Its interior was a wild jumble of goods arranged with little logic. Calico dresses crowded farming tools such as rakes and hoes. Shoes and bolts of cloth shared the same table. Patent medicines jostled cans of peaches on shelves behind the counter. Harness straps and horse collars hung on the walls beside slabs of bacon. Hams dangled by their curing-cords from the rafters, next to heavy work shoes suspended by their knotted laces. There was the inevitable wheel of cheese standing on the counter next to the tobacco cutter.
A short, bald man in a soiled, striped apron made of mattress ticking came from somewhere in the dimness at the back of the store. He said, “Well, Belle, I was wondering when you’d be coming for that sugar you ordered. It’s been here for almost a week.”
“I’m ready for it now, Eleazar,” Belle said. “And I’ve even brought somebody to help you load it on the mules.”
“Good, good. Now that the boy’s back in school again, I’m a little shorthanded.” He looked at Longarm. “Well, I’d say you ought to be able to lift a sack of sugar without too much trouble.”
Longarm grinned but made no reply. The thought flashed through his mind that he might be able to entrust his note to the storekeeper to mail, but, judging from the gossipy exchange between the man and Belle, he’d be a fool to take a chance. His note to Gower might wind up in Belle’s hands if he risked giving it to the storekeeper to mail.
Belle said, “There are some other things I need besides the sugar, Eleazar. A sack of scratch-feed—the eggs haven’t been very good since I ran out a few days ago—and matches, we’re running low. If you’ve got a fresh comb of the red clover honey, put it in a bucket for me to take back. Sam might want something else, I don’t know. Flour, or something like that. He’ll tell you when he comes back from picking up the bottles. And I guess we’d better load the sugar on right away. It looks like it might be getting ready to rain.”
“Be a shame if it spoiled the blowout for the newlyweds,” the storekeeper said. “You’ll be going, I guess?”
“What blowout?” Belle asked, frowning. “And who’s getting married? I haven’t heard anything about a wedding.”
“Why, Sam’s Aunt Lucy’s girl, Sairey. She’s marrying young Fred Mayes. Thought sure you’d heard.”
“Sam’s kin don’t pay much attention to us out at the Bend,” Belle said shortly. “But I don’t guess we’ll go to the wedding, since we didn’t get invited.”
“You’d be too late for it, anyhow,” Eleazar told her. “They had that this morning early. But the shindy’s just about getting started good right now, and it’ll probably go on most of the night.”
“Well, you and Windy go ahead and load the sugar,” Belle said. “Be sure it’s covered good, Windy. Sugar’s too dear to let the rain get to it and melt it away.”
“I’ll look after it, Belle,” Longarm assured her. He watched Belle go out the door, one hand holding her velvet skirt above her ankles to keep it from dragging on the dusty floor. Then he turned back to the storekeeper.
