Mugs Birdsong's Crime Academy by Wheeler Richard

Author:Wheeler, Richard [Wheeler, Richard S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2012-07-10T03:16:40+00:00

Chapter Seven

Mugs liked the bank robbery part of his crime school and decided to keep it. Everyone had fun. It was a fine way for lawmen to get to know one another. They laughed, and talked about it for the rest of the session. So he told the banker, J. J. Jones, that he was going to do it again on the first or second day of the next session.

“Be sure and lock up the real stuff in your vault, J. J. I don’t want any accidents.”

“That sure was fun, Mugs. I’m not worried, because it’s lawmen doing it. But we’ll take precautions. Let me know the hour.”

“They’ll be toasting you,” Mugs said.

“I’ll load the old Navy,” said J. J. “Those wads sting when they hit someone, and that’s half the fun of it.”

Mugs promised to keep J. J. Jones posted, along with the tellers, and town people. It looked like the bank robbery was going to become a ritual opening celebration for each class. The hardware people were delighted to sell a lot of blank cartridges, so there’d be lots of noise. The whole town of Rock Springs could hardly wait for the next heist.

Mugs decided there wasn’t enough fake money to satisfy the lawmen, so he corralled Typhoid, who ran a job printing operation as well as the Tattler.

“I want a mess of fake money: fins, sawbucks, century notes, you name it. And on some good, tough paper so it lasts,” Mugs said.

“Anything for old loverboy,” she said, leering at him. “Just return the favor— if you’re capable.”

She sure was mean, he thought.

She set to work, and pretty soon had a pile of greenbacks, in all denominations, all neatly cut with her paper cutter, and stacked and counted. This stuff was much better than the first stuff, but it was still plainly toy money, and even said Fake where the president was supposed to be in the middle of each bill. But now there’d be a mess of greenbacks in the tills when the lawmen pulled off the heist.

Mugs took a pile of it over to J. J. The banker admired the greenbacks, and smiled.

“This’ll make it more fun,” he said. “I’ll fill the cash trays with it at each cage, and we’ll be ready.”

“Just be sure you lock up the real stuff,” Mugs said. “Every last dime.”

“That’s a promise, Mugs.”

The banker had told Mugs that he usually kept eighty to a hundred thousand in cash on hand. The railroad used a lot of it to pay its workers, and local ranchers paid their drovers in cash too. They all got greenbacks in brown envelopes on payday.

“I’m gonna quit doing the express train robbery,” he told J. J. “The railroad wanted too much to repair everything. So I’ll just keep the rest of the session in the classrooms, and let the lawmen tell stories.”

“Your crime school sure is a big boost for Rock Springs,” the banker said.

“I got a lot of special guests this time,” Mugs said. “Seven of the twenty sent me up the river.

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