CHAPTER 19
Confident in his assessment of Malcolm and Harley’s behavior, Flint did not skip breakfast the next morning. He was the first to greet Myrna and Hannah at the table. Both women seemed pleased to see him, even though he showed no intention to linger over coffee afterward. He had to get to the office early, but his first stop was Lon Blake’s stable to pick up Buster in case he had need of him this morning. As he saddled his horse, he asked Lon, “Those two strangers pick up their horses yet?”
“Nope. That’s them right there.” Lon pointed to a couple of horses in the stalls. “You seem mighty interested in them two fellers.”
“Nothin’ serious. I was just curious about ’em. Turned out to be nothin’ a-tall. I had ’em mixed up with two other fellas. I had a drink with ’em last night and I didn’t think they’d get away very early this mornin’.” Flint stepped up onto the buckskin gelding and rode off. He had no desire to put his thoughts about those two into Lon’s mind.
Thinking it better to leave Buster at the rail in front of the sheriff’s office rather than anywhere near the bank, he looked in on Ralph and told him he’d have a late breakfast this morning. Flint took the time to get a fire going in the stove, made a small pot of coffee, and unlocked Ralph’s cell long enough to set the pot inside.
Locking the cell again, he said, “Maybe that’ll hold you till I can get back with your breakfast.”
“Just like livin’ in a fancy hotel,” Ralph said. “’Preciate the service, Flint.”
“You ever been in a fancy hotel, Ralph?”
“Can’t say as I have, but I’ve heard they really treat you nice, though.”
Flint laughed and shook his head. He wondered if Buck was going to be able to send Ralph to be tried at the end of the month. In spite of his past crimes, it was hard to see him as a hardened criminal. It was even harder for Flint to believe he had shot Ralph twice.
He left the jail and walked up the street. Near the top of the street, the bank sat between Clara’s Kitchen and Harper’s Feed and Supply, and he figured Harper’s would be a good place to watch the bank without being seen. The front of the store had one window, and the side of the store had very small windows back in the feed section. Two barn-type doors big enough to drive a wagon through was the spot Flint picked to watch the bank. He told John Harper he was checking out the storeroom they used for a jail cell.
Flint walked back to the feed section and talked to Paul Roper for a while before Paul got called up front to help load a customer’s wagon. Flint leaned up against the side of the door and watched the bank when it opened at nine. In less than a minute, he saw Malcolm and Harley ride slowly up to the rail in front of Clara’s Kitchen on the other side of the bank.
They dismounted, but didn’t go in. Rolling a couple of cigarettes, they lit up for a casual smoke supposedly and watched as Robert Page, one of the tellers, came outside to hook the outer doors open, then picked up a couple of pieces of trash near the entrance. After a short while, they flipped their cigarette butts into the street and climbed back onto their horses. Instead of riding out into the street, they rode all the way around the bank.
Flint stepped back inside when Malcolm turned to look at the feed store. Still watching, he saw them ride into the street on the other side of the bank.
Apparently satisfied, they nudged their horses into a trot, turning back toward the hotel and out the north end of the street. They were on the road to Tyler, but Flint was not convinced Tyler was their destination. Malcolm might be riding out of town to the north, simply because he had told them they were on their way to Tyler. And he didn’t want to raise a question in anyone’s mind, if they rode down the main street toward the south.
Flint almost forgot but remembered in time to turn around and hurry into Clara’s before the CLOSED sign was turned to face out.
“We were starting to wonder if you were going to feed your prisoner breakfast, or not,” Clara said.
“I darn-near forgot it,” Flint admitted. “I had a job to do early, so I couldn’t get here any sooner ’n this. But I did tell Ralph it would be late.”
“Margaret fixed up one for him about two minutes ago and put it in the oven to keep warm. What about you? Did you get any breakfast?”
“Yes, ma’am. I had to eat real early, so I got something.”
She didn’t say anything, but gave him an accusing look. She knew he ate breakfast at Hannah Green’s house. “Well, we expect to see you at dinner. I’ll get your prisoner’s plate for you.” She stopped, however, when she saw Mindy coming toward them, carrying a tray.
“I saw you come in,” Mindy told him, “and you didn’t look like you were going to sit down, so I figured you’d come for this.”
“Yes, ma’am, I did. Thank you, Mindy. I’ll see if I can get down to the jail with it before it cools off too much.” He turned to leave. “I reckon I’ll see you at dinner,” he called back over his shoulder.
When he got back to the office, Buck had returned from Jake’s Place and his own breakfast. “Where you been?” he asked as Flint went straight to the cell room door.
“I’ll be right back. Let me take this to Ralph. I know he thinks we ain’t ever gonna feed him.”
Back in the office, he jumped right into his findings. “Like I’ve been tellin’ you those two, Malcolm and Harley, are up to something, all right. And I’m pretty damn-sure they’re fixin’ to rob the bank.” He immediately saw a skeptical expression on Buck’s face. “Just hear me out,” Flint insisted.
Buck leaned back in his chair and listened to what Flint had found out. He went over everything he had put together and pointed out all the things Malcolm said that didn’t make sense. Buck soon lost his skepticism when he realized so many things didn’t make sense.
“Shreveport to Tyler?” Flint blurted, “With no packhorses? They were here to look that bank over, and there’ll be more with ’em when they come back.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, I believe you might be right,” Buck confessed. “I swear, that older one, Malcolm, whether he’s Harley’s daddy or not, is one helluva performer, ain’t he? I gotta hand it to ya. You sniffed him out right from the first, so now it’s a question of when are they gonna show up here again, and how many of ’em will there be? And we ain’t got no way of knowin’ the answers to either one of them questions. You got any ideas on that?”
“I hadn’t really thought about that,” Flint said. “But if I had a gang of men, I suppose on the mornin’ I was gonna hit that bank—and it looks like they’re plannin’ on a mornin’ strike—I’d have my men break up and ride into town kinda casual-like. Get ’em set up on the street near this jail and anywhere else where trouble might come from. And when we made the robbery, we’d come outta the bank shootin’. The men at each end of the street would ride down to meet ’em, shootin’ at everybody who even looked like they were gonna do something.”
“That sounds like a lotta bank holdups I’ve seen or heard about,” Buck said. “Say you’re the sheriff, how you gonna fight ’em?”
“Well, we need to know as soon as we can that it’s gonna happen,” Flint said. “I reckon to begin with, we’ve gotta really watch the town in case we see more than one or two strangers ridin’ into town one mornin’, and at about the same time. As soon as we do, one of us oughta go straight to the bank to fight from inside. And maybe the other one go to the post office. It’s right across the street from the bank and you could shoot ’em comin’ out the bank door.”
“So far, you’ve come up with a plan I can’t top,” Buck said. “I reckon we’re both gonna be watchin’ the streets every mornin’ from now on. From what you’ve seen, it seems like they plan to hit the bank right after it opens.”
“That’s right. These strangers will most likely be showin’ up in town before nine o’clock.” Flint didn’t say more about that, waiting for Buck to respond.
“Yep,” Buck finally said after a long pause while he was obviously thinking about it. “I reckon I’ll be changin’ my regular breakfast time. I’ll have to get outta my room earlier than I have been.” He clamped his teeth together and grimaced then reached down into the right cabinet of his desk, pulled out the bottle, and poured a generous shot into his empty coffee cup. Before he corked the bottle, he gestured toward Flint with it, but Flint shook his head.
He wasn’t sure which crisis caused Buck to need a drink so badly that he didn’t try to hide it. It could have been the danger of fighting a gang of bank robbers, but Flint figured it was the thought of missing his morning ritual after a drunken night in his quarters. It would remain to be seen if Buck could do it. He had cut back on his drinking for a short time after the back of the jail was blown away. He might not be up to it again.
In which case, Flint thought, I’m going to be facing a gang of bank robbers by myself.
“From what I’ve heard,” he told Buck, “this won’t be the first time you’ve saved the Bank of Tinhorn from bein’ robbed.”
Buck looked into the empty coffee cup for a moment before placing it back on the desk and returning the whiskey bottle to the cabinet. “You know, that’s a fact. I stopped an attempted robbery on the bank’s openin’ day. And you and me are gonna stop this attempt, too. By God, they’re soon gonna learn they can’t have their way in Tinhorn. We don’t know where these outlaws are comin’ from, and they might be here tomorrow mornin’. We’d best start our early watch first thing tomorrow.”
Flint nodded his agreement.
“The bank opens at nine, so whaddaya figure? Think they’ll start driftin’ into town about eight to eight-thirty?”
“Sounds about right to me. Eating about seven o’clock will give us plenty of time. I don’t expect they’ll wanna get here too early, since they ain’t thinkin’ about breakin’ in the doors before opening time. It’ll be a lot easier for them to have the banker open the door for ’em. I’ll eat breakfast at Clara’s every mornin’ so I can see the bank from the window there.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll meet you there.” Buck grimaced again, then added, “If I ain’t there at seven, come roust me out.” He gave Flint a weak smile. “You know, at my age it ain’t easy breakin’ old habits.”
“I’ll getcha,” Flint declared.
They talked about the possibility of asking some of the citizens for help, maybe as riflemen, but Buck was not sure they could count on them. “Tell you the truth, we ain’t got enough men in town with any backbone to make up a decent posse. Raymond Chadwick, maybe, I can’t think of anybody else we could count on.”
Powerfully built, Raymond Chadwick was the blacksmith.
Flint had to agree that Chadwick would be useful in an all-out brawl, but he was untested when bullets were flying. Buck went on to say he was reluctant to tell the merchants a gang of bank robbers might come galloping down the street. When he was a much younger lawman, he had been involved in a robbery where every window had a rifle shooting out of it. The town had ended up with two of their citizens killed by stray shots from the stores, as well as half a dozen wounded. He shook his head as he thought about it happening in the little town of Tinhorn. “It sure would help if we knew how many were comin’,” he finally said.
“Seems to me, we’d have one advantage over ’em,” Flint suggested. “They won’t know we’re expectin’ ’em. And if we get set up with one of us in the bank to protect the people inside, and a rifle across the street, we oughta be able to stop the ones takin’ the money.” He paused in his thinking when it suddenly struck him. “You know what? I’ve got a feelin’ that Harley really is Malcolm’s son. I don’t know how many brothers he’s got at home, but I’ll bet this bank holdup is a family affair. That’s why they pick smaller banks like ours. Maybe there won’t be an extra large gang of men. They might not think the take would be as much as they need. I think one of the reasons ol’ Malcolm did so much talkin’ to you and me was because he wasn’t gonna be one of the gunmen in the bank. It’ll be Harley and other younger ones to do the dirty work.”
“Maybe,” Buck responded, having already learned that many of Flint’s feelings turned out to be fact. “I reckon we’ll just wait and find out, won’t we? We’ll just get ready for ’em. However many show up, we’ll do what we’re supposed to do. Protect the town. That’s what they’re payin’ us all that money for, right?”
“Right,” Flint answered with a chuckle. “You think we oughta have a meetin’ with Harvey Baxter to let him know what we suspect? He might wanna move most of his cash outta that big safe he’s got. Matter of fact, when we give him the word we’ve spotted the gang in town, he might wanna slip out the back door.”
“Maybe you’re right. We oughta let him know he and his tellers are in danger. We’ll let him know, if we see it happenin’, and he can decide what to do about himself and the two tellers.” Buck took another moment to consider it, then decided, “I expect we’d best let him know right now what we expect, so he’ll have a little time to make up his mind. We might as well go next door to the bank when we go to Clara’s for dinner.”
* * *
“Howdy, Sheriff, Deputy,” Robert Page greeted them when they walked into the bank. “What can we do for you today?”
“Howdy, Robert,” Buck replied. “We need to have a few words with Mr. Baxter, if he’s available.”
“Right now, he talking to a potential customer who’s moving his accounts from a bank in Tyler. I don’t know how much longer that’s gonna take,” Page said.
Buck glanced at Flint, then back to Page. “No problem. Me and Flint are goin’ to Clara’s next door to eat dinner. We’ll come back after we eat but tell Mr. Baxter I do need to see him. All right?”
“Sure thing,” Page replied. “I’ll tell him.”
Buck thanked him, then he and Flint headed next door to Clara’s Kitchen.
“Everybody watch yourself,” Bonnie Jones japed when they walked in. “Here comes the whole sheriff’s department of Tinhorn.”
“That’s right,” Buck responded. “It takes both of us to place you and the rest of you loose women in this establishment under arrest.”
That brought a big laugh out of Bonnie, which always reminded Flint of a chicken cackling.
“Well, I’m not going without a fight,” Mindy declared boldly.
“I bet I can guess which one you wanna fight with,” Bonnie said aside to her.
“Shut your mouth, Bonnie,” Mindy whispered, then aloud, she asked, “Where do you gentlemen want to sit?”
“Let’s take that table over there by the window,” Flint answered, and led the way. Buck followed and when they sat down, Flint said, “This is the table Malcolm and Harley sat at. You notice, you get a pretty good view of the bank from here?”
“Well, that’s the truth, ain’t it?” Buck replied. “I never gave it much thought before. Maybe from now on, we oughta arrest anybody takin’ this table as potential bank robbers.”
“We’ve got pork chops today,” Mindy said as she placed two cups of coffee on the table. “If you don’t want chops, Margaret will cook you a steak.”
They decided on the chops, since they weren’t offered very often.
When she left to give Margaret the order, Buck asked a question. “Why is it, whenever I’m eatin’ in here with you, it’s always Mindy that waits on us?”
“Is it? I don’t know. I hadn’t noticed it.”
Buck chortled, truly believing he hadn’t. Unaware he was being japed, Flint shrugged, wondering why Buck found it amusing. They had just started into their pork chops when Mayor Harvey Baxter came into the dining room.
He spoke briefly to Clara, then went directly to their table. “Mind if I join you?” Baxter asked as he pulled a chair back and sat down. He nodded to both of them, then looked directly at Buck. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
Before Buck could answer, Mindy came to take his order.
Baxter glanced from Buck’s plate to Flint’s. “I’ll have the same thing.”
Buck got right to the point and told him that he and Flint suspected his bank was the target of a gang of bank robbers. He went over all the signs of a planned robbery he and Flint had discussed.
Baxter’s reaction was one of disbelief at first. “Oh, no. Don’t tell me we’re going to go through that again,” he complained. “I thought they would have learned their lesson the first time.”
“That was a few years back,” Buck said. “Somebody thinks your bank is ripe for the pickin’ now.”
Baxter just sat there shaking his head, too upset to speak for a moment. “I hope like hell we’re wrong,” Buck told him, “but we can’t take a chance on ignorin’ signs that could sure point to an attempted robbery. I stopped that first robbery, and with Flint workin’ with me now, we got a better chance this time.”
“All right,” Baxter said, finally accepting the possibility. “What do you want me to do? When do you think it’s going to happen?”
“Well, that’s what we don’t know,” Buck said. “We suspect they’ll try it within the next couple of days. There’s no reason to think they wouldn’t, since they sent two men to scout it yesterday. Me and Flint will be watchin’ the town real close every day now for strangers.” He went on to tell Baxter what he and his tellers should do when they are warned it is about to happen. “It’ll be in the morning, so right after you open your doors at nine, you and your tellers need to head out the back door right away. Flint will be your new teller.”
“I’m not leaving my bank,” Baxter told them. “I’ll send Robert and Eugene out the back, but I’m not leaving.”
“I reckon that’s up to you,” Buck said. “But I reckon you might wanna take most of your cash outta that big safe in the back room, if you’ve got some other place to put it that don’t look like a safe. That’s just in case we don’t stop ’em, and you have to open it for ’em. I hope it don’t come to that.” He glanced over at Flint, conscious of what that would mean if it did. Understanding, Baxter shifted his gaze toward Flint as well.
“I expect you’d better start on that pork chop,” Flint remarked. “They’re a lot better when they’re still hot.”
Baxter gave him a look of astonishment, wondering if he fully realized the danger threatening them.
“The sheriff and I won’t let ’em take your bank,” Flint said then.
Baxter had to laugh at that. “Good!” He looked at Flint, then back at Buck. “Good!” he repeated. “Just keep me informed on anything else you find out. I trust your judgment, so just tell me what to do.”
“We’ll do that, Mr. Mayor,” Buck said. “We’ll try to give you as much warning as we can.”
Baxter got up from the table and left, his plate untouched.
“I’m afraid we spoiled the mayor’s dinner,” Buck said to Mindy when she came with more coffee and saw the untouched plate.
“It’s not the first time he’s done that,” Mindy said. “We’ll put it in the warmer oven for a little while, then send it over to his office. You want some more coffee?”
Buck nodded.
“Flint?”
“No thanks, Mindy. I’ve had about enough. Thanks just the same.”
Unable to think of any other reason to stand there, she turned and went back to the kitchen.