“I guess we’re all in,” said Paulus.
“All fools in a circle.”
“Shut up, Grofield.”
“You men give me confidence. This is going to be easier than I thought.”
“I only wish Ernie could be here to see this. He hateslittle towns.”
“It’ll be pleasant, I must admit, to be in uniform once again. I sometimes think I missed my calling.”
“More beer?”
They all wanted more beer. When Edgars brought it back and distributed it, Parker got to his feet and said, “We’ve got some setting up to do. Paulus, you and Wiss ought to take a run out to Copper Canyon and look it over. See if there’s any problems we haven’t covered.”
Wiss said, “I don’t like showing my face.”
“We’ll sell insurance,” Paulus told him. “Don’t you worry, I’ve done this before. I’ve got identity cards and brochures and everything. All you do is do a bad job selling insurance, and in between you look around.”
Parker said, “If Wiss don’t want to, he don’t have to. Kerwin?”
Kerwin shrugged. “All right by me.”
“Wycza, you and Salsa go out there and take a look at this mining place. But don’t stay in Copper Canyon.” He turned to Edgars. “What’s some other town nearby, bigger than Copper Canyon?”
“Madison.”
“All right. Stay at Madison. Chambers, you pick us up a truck, right?”
“I surely will.”
“The biggest they make.”
“That’s the one I’ll get, all right.”
“Wiss, get together with Paulus and Kerwin before they leave, work up a list of the supplies you need. Then you and Elkins go get the stuff.”
Elkins nodded. Wiss said, “Who’s handling the cash?”
“Grofield.”
“Treasurer and disburser, at your service.”
“Littlefield, pick yourself up a car. You and Phillips drive on out there to Madison and start moving groceries out to the mine. Enough for twelve men for a week, just in case. We’ll need water, too. Edgars tells me the water there’s polluted.”
Littlefield said, “Is this the car we’ll use in the job?”
“Right. So stay away from Copper Canyon. Arrange with the boys for when any of them wants to bring a car out to stash at the mine, so you can drive them back. The back money pays for your car and the truck and that’s it.”
Salsa said, “What about the lookout’s car? I’m lookout, town line.”
“Get yourself a car in town, when we start the operation.”
Salsa nodded. “That’s good.”
Parker told him, “What you want to do right away is pick us up walkie-talkies. Four of them, for you, me, Wycza and Grofield. Grofield’ll be at the telephone company, and he can get in touch with anybody else by phone. Wycza and Elkins will be coming together at the truck all the time, so they only need one walkie-talkie between them.”
“Four walkie-talkies,” said Salsa. “Very good.”
“Buy them here in the East.”
Salsa nodded.
Edgars said, “What about me? What do you want me to do?”
Parker shook his head. “Just stay loose. You’ll have things to do later.”
“Well, what about you? What are you going to do?”
“Guns.”
Phillips leaned across the table and said, “Let me have some of that notepaper, will you, Paulus? And does anyone have a pencil? Then we’ll make arrangements for rendezvous at the mine, for those of you with cars to leave there.”
Wiss said, “Kerwin, Paulus, let’s go out in the kitchen and talk.”
Littlefield turned to Grofield. “We’ll have to work out expenses,” he said. “The car, and food, and living expenses.”
“No living expenses,” Grofield told him. “We shaved that much out already.”
Littlefield pursed his lips. “If you think it works better that way.”
Grofield grinned at him. “You want me to go get some more? And you pay it back double, so that way you pay your living expenses twice.”
