The Bank Robber Read online

  “Maybe not,” I yelled back, “but I’ll damn sure get your horse and then we’ll see how you like being afoot with that posse coming.”

  It hit home with him. He studied another second, with my sights leveled down on him, and then gave in. “All right,” he called.

  He rode upstream and then suddenly turned his gelding and charged the water. He had to do it fast before he lost his nerve.

  But immediately we could see he hadn’t given himself enough of a start on the current. As soon as the horse had to start swimming we could see he was being carried downriver too fast. To top it he wouldn’t get off his horse and help him. He stayed bolt upright in the saddle, even drawing up his legs a little to try and keep them out of the water.

  “He’s in trouble!” I said to Les.

  “Get off your horse!” Les yelled. “Get off and hold on!”

  But he wouldn’t. He was too scared. Even as far off as he was we could see the fear in his face. He was staring down at the water, his eyes big in his head.

  Les and I ran out as far as we could, but we could see that the current was going to carry him on by. His horse was trying hard, but Tod wasn’t helping him any. A rider and the current were just too much for the poor animal. We could see from the way his head was drooping that he was tiring badly.

  “He ain’t gonna make it!” Les said.

  “Quick! The ropes!”

  We whirled around and run to our horses and got our lariat ropes and then ran back in the water. I went out until the water was up to my waist and I could feel the current sucking at my legs. I had to spread my feet to keep my balance. It was an awkward position to rope from, but I whirled my loop and watched as they floated along. His poor horse had damn near quit swimming and they were getting lower and lower in the water. Finally I threw. Tod leaned out and made a grab for the rope, but it was short. I reeled in as fast as I could and started down the sandbar hoping for another try.

  “Help me!” Tod was yelling. “I’m gonna drown.”

  Les had waded out even further than I had. He hadn’t thrown and then I seen what he was waiting for. There was a little whirlpool about midway alongside the sandbar and Tod and his horse floated into it. It flung them closer in and Les whirled his loop and cast it. It landed neatly over Tod’s shoulders and the redhead grabbed on and slid out of the saddle.

  I put my own rope over my shoulder and ran to help Les. The current was terrible to fight against, but we gradually snaked him in. He got his feet and then stumbled up to the top of the sandbar and fell down to his hands and knees, coughing and gasping for breath. Les and I came on more slowly, coiling our ropes. I looked downstream. In the distance, and getting smaller and smaller, I could see Tod’s horse floating along out in midstream. The poor animal was give plain out. He wasn’t even trying to swim. The current had him and was turning him around and around. His head was getting lower and lower. I hated to see a good horse finish like that.

  I walked up to Tod. He was still down on his hands and knees and I got him by the hair and jerked his head back. “Well, you’ve made a mess out of it. I ought to drown you anyway!”

  I was mad as hell.

  He jerked his head around trying to get loose from my grip, but I slapped him with my free hand. “That’s four thousand you’ve lost us,” I said. “You cowardly bastard!”

  I slapped him again just for good measure and flung him away so that he kind of fell over in the shallow water. He scrambled to his feet.

  “Look at that!” I told Les, pointing toward Tod’s horse. He was just a dot in the water, way downstream. “There goes a good horse and four thousand dollars.”

  “I know it,” Les said. He was feeling as bad as I was.

  Tod came up. He had his head down. “This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t throwed down on me. I could have crossed at Piedras Negras.”

  I looked at him, disgusted. “Sure,” I said. “Sure you could. Listen, Tod, don’t always play the fool. What caused it was you being such a coward.”

  “My cartridges are wet,” he said. “And you know it.” The poor fool hadn’t even thought to put his revolver in his saddlebags. It was a wonder he hadn’t lost it.

  “Listen,” I told him, “I’ve backed you down before and your cartridges weren’t wet then. And when they get dry I’ll still back you down. You’re quick enough to kill little bank clerks, but you ain’t much against a man.”

  Les asked me to take it easy. He could see I was mad enough to kill. “I ought to shoot him,” I said. “Drowning a good horse! Fool!”

  “Maybe my horse’ll wash ashore,” Tod said lamely. “Maybe we can get the gold back.” He didn’t want any more from me. I’ve always noticed a bully will stay mad just so long as you let him. Once you put it on him he’ll get calmed down right away.

  “Not a chance,” I said. “That horse will end up in the gulf. And if he did come ashore it would probably be on the Texas side anyway.”

  “Then we better get out of here,” Les said. “We’ve still got half a river to cross. And that posse could show up at any minute. Not a lot of cover out here in the middle of this river.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “We better get moving.” Things were in a pretty mess. There we were, in the middle of the Rio Grande, a horse short, and all our work for nothing. The only thing good was that we’d actually made it better than halfway across the river and the water on the side we still had to cross didn’t look anywhere near as bad.

  Me and Les walked out in it a bit. It stayed shallow and the current wasn’t too strong.

  “I could swim this,” I said. “Tell you what, you ride your gelding and pull me across on your rope. I’ll let Tod take my filly.”

  I took off my gun belt and boots and put them in Les’s saddlebags. He got up on his mount and took a dally around his saddle horn and handed me the end of his rope. I opened the loop and put it around my waist. Tod had gotten up on my filly and I looked over at him.

  “You drown that mare,” I warned him, “and I promise I’ll drown you. You get off and give her some help.”

  He didn’t say anything and I followed along behind Les as he rode his gelding into the water. It got up to my chest and then I began to swim, having very little trouble with the current.

  It turned out to be easy. We made it to the other side and then looked back for Tod. I don’t know if our easy crossing had braved him up or if he was ashamed of himself, but he rode into the water without hesitation and made the crossing all right.

  I put my boots back on and reholstered my gun and sat down to blow a minute. The posse still hadn’t shown up, but we weren’t going to linger.

  CHAPTER 2

  Villa Guerro

  We were due to meet two of our partners in Piedras Negras in a few days, but I knew we’d never make it riding double with our mounts as jaded as they were from the long run and then the river. Piedras was a good sixty miles away and we were still going to need another horse even if we got there. We had a job planned with these two men we were to meet.

  “There’s a little town up the road a bit,” Les said. “Place called Villa Guerro. I’ve been there some and it ain’t much, but we might pick up a horse.”

  “How far?”

  “About four miles, I’d make it. I’m not sure, though.”

  “We might as well,” I said. “At least we can get something to eat.” I was hungry, not having had time for lunch what with the robbery and all. And I can never eat breakfast before I go in on a job. I’m too nervous. A mess of tortillas and beans would go good, with maybe a little shot of tequila to boil the river water out of a man.

  We mounted up, or at least Les and I did. I made Tod walk. Les was willing to carry him double, but I wouldn’t let him. I was still pretty sore at him and I figured a little walk in the sun would do him good.

  It was a long, hot four miles. There hadn’t been any rain down in that part of the country and the ground was dry and caked. There was cactus and some m
esquite and piña, but that’s about all that’ll grow in the poor soil.

  After a while I relented and we swapped off walking. Tod’s a fool and that’s just a fact you can’t do anything about. He’s not going to change no matter what you do to him. If he’d of killed that bank clerk he would have still been going along just the same as he was. Les was letting him ride his gelding and that was good enough for him at the moment.

  Killing is a thing that somehow just seemed to slip up on me. It makes me feel bad when it happens even though I know I’ve give the man a fair shake. I have never in my life set out to kill a man. When it’s happened it’s happened because it’s been forced on me, just as it was the first time I ever got into a shooting. That’d been when I was punching cattle up in Carson County, Texas, up in the Panhandle. A grand jury had bound me over, but I was acquitted. The brother of the man I’d killed had been kicked by a horse the day before the hearing and knocked senseless. He’d been the only witness against me and the judge had let me go for lack of evidence. It’d been an act of God as the judge had said and I must therefore be innocent. I was, but I’d been in big trouble if the brother had gotten a chance to testify. He’d of lied and I might have spent some little time rotting away in a jail somewhere. They’d been deviling me and I’d finally went to giving them a little back. I was just a kid and they’d been giving me a hard time for days. When I come back at them the little game had turned serious. We were in the bunkhouse and I’d shot the man just as he’d gone under his pillow for his gun. It had given me a bad feeling seeing him fall by my hand.

  The only other time I’d been lawed over killing had been up in Arkansas. Again it had been a fair fight, but the man was very popular and his friends had all testified against me. I’d had to break confinement while they were transporting me up to the state penitentiary at Little Rock.

  Villa Guerro was just another dusty little Mexican town of about fifty adobes. There were some kids and goats along its only street and an occasional old man sleeping in the sun, but, other than them, there wasn’t much stirring. We searched around a little until we found what passed for a cantina and then pulled up in front of it and dismounted.

  The front door was open. They had a big, heavy door that they barred at night, but it was swung back and there was only a little curtain of beads across the front. We brushed through that and went on inside, our big roweled spurs clanking against the hard-packed dirt floor. Nobody much looked up when we came in. There was a bartender about half asleep behind the bar and a couple of Mexicans drinking in the back, but they just gave us a little glance and went back to their business. That close to the border Texas cowboys aren’t too unusual.

  “This’ll do,” I said. We walked over and took chairs at a table. The bartender come awake enough to yell toward the back and a big, fat Mexican waitress came out and came over and asked what we wanted.

  Les spoke the lingo the best and he asked if they had any beer. She said no. Tod asked for American whiskey and she said they didn’t have any of that either. We all ordered tequila.

  “And bring us something to eat,” I said. “Whatever you got and make it snappy. Pronto!” I was hungry.

  Tod was leaned back in his chair and he reached over and give the woman a pat on the ass. He had a big grin on his face. “What’s your hurry, Will?” He patted the girl again, but she didn’t pay it no mind. I guess she was used to it. “Don’t rush this mamacita off so quick. Me and her look like we’d get along.”

  I didn’t say anything, but Les looked over at him. “You better cut that out. We ain’t quite got the lay of the land here, yet.”

  Tod let out a big laugh. He still had the waitress by the ass. “The lay of the land ain’t the kind I want.”

  She was just a big fat pig and it disgusted me seeing him taking on over her so. She had a great big moon face that was covered with sweat and her arms, coming out of the loose blouse she was wearing, were near as big as Tod’s. Tod had her by one cheek and he was squeezing it like it was a big grapefruit.

  “You ought to feel the ass on her!” he said. “It’s as big as any two I’ve ever got hold of.”

  I motioned at the waitress. “Get the drinks,” I said.

  She suddenly jerked away from Tod and took off for the back. He made a pass at her, but missed and leaned back to the table laughing. “Boy, that’s a piece!” he said.

  Les asked me if I thought the posse would cross on over and try to pick up our trail.

  I shook my head. “The river will stop them.” I looked at Tod. “All we did was rob their bank. Luckily.”

  But me saying that didn’t bother Tod any. He didn’t give a damn.

  The place was cool, or at least it was cooler than being outside. I looked around. At one time the walls had been whitewashed, but they’d long since got dirty and stayed that way. They had a lantern hanging from the ceiling and it put out some light, but I expected the place was pretty dark during the night custom.

  The girl came back with a bottle of tequila and some glasses and we poured out all around and made a toast to luck and then knocked them down. Tequila’s hell on the taste, but it does a good job in the belly. I could feel it spreading around and relaxing me. We had a couple of more drinks and then the girl brought our food. It was beans and rice and tortillas and some dried beef. I rolled up a tortilla and dug in. I was feeling pretty low about the gold and I didn’t know quite what we were going to do, but the drinks and the food were making me feel a little better. While we were eating Les asked what I thought.

  “First thing, we’ve got to get a mount for this fool here. Unless we figure to leave him.”

  Tod was wolfing his food down and didn’t pay me any attention. He was sweating like a pig from the heat and the tequila. But then we all were. The sun had dried us off after our dip in the river, but we were near about as wet again from sweat.

  Les said: “There’s some pretty big ranches around here. We might be able to pick up something from one of them.”

  Of course we didn’t want just anything. When you rob banks for a living you want to be damn sure you’ve got a good gun and a good horse. Generally, you try to buy for blood, because blood is the only way you can assure yourself of a stayer and you’ve just got to have that in an animal.

  We didn’t have much time either, not after losing the gold. We had to get to Piedras Negras and meet Chico and Howland before they pulled out without us. When I’d made the deal to meet them I hadn’t been too sure we’d go through with it. In the back of my mind I’d figured to wait and see how it went at Carrizo Springs. Well, I was sure now, and we needed to get high behind and get on to Piedras.

  I sat there, ruminating on how to get Tod a horse. Suddenly it hit me that we didn’t have much money. I guess it hit Les at the same time, for he suddenly set his glass down and asked what I thought we had between us.

  “I don’t know,” I said, suddenly worried. “Let’s get it up and see.”

  We went to our pockets and anted up everything we had on the table. In American money it come to about thirty-five dollars.

  “Well there it is!” I said. I hit the table with my fist, making the coins and glasses jump. A good horse would cost at least seventy-five or a hundred dollars if not more. And, if we were going to pull a job, Tod would have to be as well mounted as the rest of us else he’d slow up the whole party.

  I stared at him, but he wouldn’t look back at me. “How you like that, Tod?”

  He didn’t answer, but Les said: “Lay off him, Will. He feels bad enough already.”

  “No he don’t,” I said. “He ain’t got that much sense.”

  “Well, it ain’t going to do any good. It don’t change nothing.”

  I leaned back in my chair and put both boots up on the table. Les was right. Getting mad at Tod is like whipping a dead horse. “All right,” I said, “but there it is. What are we going to do?”

  Les was thinking on it, but Tod said, “We could steal a horse. Slip out to on
e of them big ranches Les was talking about and take us one.” He had his mouth full of beans.

  “The hell with that,” I said. “We ain’t doing nothing in Mexico. I don’t want law from both sides of the river chasing us. I done told you—down here we walk the straight and narrow.”

  Les was still eating. After a few more bites he pushed his plate away and said he thought if we could just make it to Piedras Negras that Chico and Howland might have some money and we could borrow enough off them to get Tod well mounted.

  “They might,” I agreed. “Though they couldn’t be holding too considerable a stake. When I saw Howland in El Paso he didn’t act like he was flush. Besides, I hate to borrow from Howland. You know how he is.” I looked over at Les.

  “You got any of them little cigars?”

  He shook his head. “I been out a week.”

  Tod said he had tobacco.

  “Keep it,” I said. I didn’t want nothing off him. I didn’t quite know what to do. We were in a mess. Just then Tod had another big idea.

  “We could sell them spurs of yours,” he said.

  I just looked at him.

  Les said: “Will don’t want to sell them spurs.”

  I had a pair of gold-mounted silver spurs that were about the prettiest things I’ve ever seen. I’d bought them in Durango during a flush time and had intended on wearing them on a trip I’d planned back home. I’d paid over a hundred dollars for them and I intended they should tell folks I was doing pretty well and hadn’t turned out so bad after all. But the trip had fell through and, other than when I’d tried them on, I’d never worn them. I was saving them for the day I did finally get back to Corpus.

  I told Tod: “Maybe we ought to sell your guns. I believe we’d be better off all around.”

  He flushed and looked down. “I was just trying to help.”

  “Them spurs is special to Will, Tod,” Les said.

  Just then the fat waitress came back over to clear away our meal and I lifted my boots so she could get my plate. I asked Tod why he didn’t inquire of his girl where we could get a horse.