In the silence that followed Longarm’s words, Yazoo stood up. He stretched and said, “You’re getting ready to talk business, I guess, and it’s business I got no part of. I’ll be going. There’s plenty for me to do up at the stillhouse.”
For several minutes after the old man had left no one spoke. Belle sat, her lips compressed angrily, a frown on her face. The others waited for her to reply to Longarm.
Finally Steed spoke up. He turned to Longarm and said, “Belle don’t think it’ll hurt if we put off the job for another day, or even two. Leastwise that’s what she was saying to me and Bobby and Floyd, while we was eating breakfast.”
Longarm looked at Belle while he finished chewing the mouthful he’d taken. When he’d swallowed it and she had still said nothing, he remarked casually, “Maybe, maybe not. The way I look at it, if Belle can’t make up her mind, we’ll be better off going ahead without her, or forgetting all about the damn job.”
He was taking another risk, Longarm knew, but he counted on the greediness of Floyd and Steed to keep the risk marginal. Instead, it was Belle who objected.
“What do you mean, call it off?” she asked quickly.
“Just what I said.” Inwardly Longarm breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s not your job to call off, Windy!” Belle said hotly. “I set everything up! Floyd and Steed and those two other fellows who had bad luck were supposed to fill out the gang, along with Bobby. Or did you forget that? You came tagging in at the last minute.”
“You asked me to come in. I didn’t offer or push in,” he reminded her. “I’ve told all of you more than once, I just said I’d help out, and I didn’t give a damn whether the job went off or not.”
“That’s right, Belle, he did,” Floyd agreed. “And even with Windy in on it, we’re still a man short, if you don’t go with us.”
Bobby spoke up unexpectedly. “Don’t I have anything to say about all this?”
“Sure you do, Bobby,” Longarm replied. “Just as much as anybody else does.”
“Well, I think we ought to either pull it off or call it off,” the youth said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but the longer we sit on our butts-“
Steed snapped, “That’s enough, Bobby.” Then he said to Belle, “I feel about like Windy does. We better go on and take that bank, just like we planned to. Hell, you said the other day you was sending word to them lawmen you’re paying off, telling them when to expect us. What happens if we don’t show up?”
Longarm welcomed the support Steed was giving him, but he didn’t let it show. He told Belle, “You see, I ain’t the only one that wants to go ahead the way we planned to. What’s the matter, Belle? Don’t tell me the Bandit Queen’s getting cold feet.”
“You know better than that!” she shot back. “I was hoping you men would be reasonable and let me have a few days to get over losing Sam, but-” Longarm broke in, “Like you said coming back from town the other day, Sam wasn’t the first man you ever lost.”
“Well he wasn’t!” Belle retorted. “And he might not be the last! But that’s no sign I can pick up and go about my business like nothing happened at all!”
“It’ll be good for you to go, Belle,” Floyd said. “Doing something ought to take your mind off your troubles.”
They fell silent. Longarm started to say something, then thought better of it. He’d said enough, he told himself. The others had picked up what he’d started and made an issue of it. Belle was finding herself backed into a corner, and as far as he could see, she had only one way out. Before the silence grew too tense, Belle proved that his judgment to keep quiet had been good.
“All right,” she said. “We’ll go ahead with the job, just the way we planned to. I still don’t think it’d do any harm to put it off a day or two, but it looks like you’re all dead set on rushing along. We’ll leave as soon as we get everything ready, and pull off the bank job tomorrow.”
Longarm didn’t want to seem too eager, now that the decision had been made. He asked Belle, “You sure we can get to where we’re supposed to camp tonight, if we start this late?”
Before Belle could reply, Floyd said, “Hell, it ain’t all that late, Windy. And we won’t need to do much but spread out our soogans when we get to where we’ll be stopping.” Belle said sarcastically, “Maybe he’s too tired to ride today, Floyd. Too much time in the saddle last night.” Longarm said, trying not to sound too cheerful, “Give me five minutes to throw my gear in my saddlebags, and I’ll be ready to pull out.”
“It’ll take us a little bit longer than that,” Belle told him. “If I’m going on this job with you, I’ll have to change my clothes.”
She was still wearing the black velvet dress she’d had on the day before. She’d taken off her gunbelt, though.
“We might as well settle one more thing right now,” Steed put in. “Something we never did get around to talking about before. I’ll put in what I think right now. As soon as it’s safe to stop after we’ve done the job tomorrow, we split up the take and part company.”
“We can talk about that after we camp tonight,” Belle said.
“No.” Steed’s voice was firm. “We’ll settle it right now. I don’t aim to lose my sleep or get all nerved up arguing tonight in camp. Let’s get it done with before we leave, Belle.”
“I’ll go along with Steed.” Bobby chimed in.
“Me too,” Floyd said. “He’s right, Belle. When we settle down tonight, it better be to rest up so we’ll be fresh tomorrow. We don’t want a lot of jawing.”
