Cattle Annie and Little Britches by Robert Ward

Author:Robert Ward [Ward, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781440533853
Publisher: Tyrus Books
Published: 1977-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

XIX

HITTING THE TRAIL

THE NEXT AFTERNOON AT HIGH NOON WE HIT THE NATIONAL Bank of Tulsa. It was the first time I had ever been in a robbery in my life, and I can’t tell you how it went exactly … it all seems like a blur. But a good blur fer sure … one that left you feeling great. It was then that I began to see the appeal of leading an outlaw’s life. What I do remember is the Gang getting off their horses and walking real slow up to the bank door, and me and Annie in the back a ways. It seemed like they would never get up there in a million years … it was all happening so slow like…. But don’t think it was dull…. Not fer a second. The slowness made it feel faster inside. Oh how my heart beat as Bitter and Dalton went through the door with the rest of the Gang just behind them. We was supposed to stay with the horses, but Bill Doolin, who was covering the door, come out and looked up at us.

“Come in,” he said. “If you’re gonna be outlaws you at least ought to git in on the good stuff.”

Which we did, sneaking up to the door and peeking through, and goddamn Almighty Jesus … there they were, my friends, Bill Dalton and Bittercreek and Raidler and Dick and Dan … except it wasn’t the guys I knew at all. No, this wasn’t no ragtag bunch of colorful drunks or even lovers—this here was the Doolin-Dalton Gang! Oh how beautiful they looked as they stuck their guns into the face of the bank teller, and grabbed the money sacks…. And the looks on the faces of the people in the bank … such awe and respect … There was never nothing like it, I swear.

“Goddamn,” said Annie. “This is it. This is what I been telling you about.”

I didn’t say nothing, but held my breath as the Gang smiled at one another, all confident and cocky and alive. It was as if they weren’t really alive before … or that they had stepped into a kind of a dream and made themselves over in a way. For as they come out the door, backing out with their guns drawn, they were truly transformed, bright and beautiful shining creatures that didn’t answer to nothing but their own blood. As we rode out that day I felt such a surge of pride, such exultation, that I was amazed. The only other time I had felt such happiness was once when I had gone to church with Granny, and they had gotten the whole congregation together singing “Amazing Grace.” It was as if I had been lifted from my mortal cares and lived somehow outside my body, in an eternal space. This day, after our first real good robbery, was a whole lot like that, and I felt as we circled up into the mountains that we could ride our horses right off the trail, up a long cloud to the sun.

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