Tuesday, 24 June 2025

Preparing an Impersonation






The Wells-Fargo Agent on The Train resolutely refuses to comply and unlock The Safe —

The Wells Fargo Man :
Why?

The Legend, Jesse James :
Well, you ought to pray.
I'm gonna kill you —

(— just unlock the damn safe;)

The Wells Fargo Man :
Get at! You're gonna 
have to make me.


(— just unlock the GODDAMNED safe;)

The Legend, Jesse James :
Alright —

(Masked-Man No. 2 breaks first in this chicken-run, loses His Nerve and starts blabbing — )

Ed. : 
Don't shoot him! 
No, don't shoot him.

The Legend, Jesse James :
Don't tell me what 
I can and cannot Do, Ed.

 Round them up!

 


Chicago newspaper publishers made a great deal of The Blue Cut train robbery,
alleging that in no state but Missouri would The James Brothers be tolerated for 12 years.

 Hey.

 Can you keep a secret?

 It depends on what you're concealing.

 You afraid of the dark?

 No.

 You superstitious?

 I put... I put an acorn in the window to keep the lightning out.

 Kid, you must've crept up on cat's paws.

 I'll wager that's the first and last time you'll ever be caught off-guard.

 How old are you?

 Twenty.

 Except, well, I guess I won't really be 20 till...

 till January, so...

 I'm 19.

 Yeah, you feel older than that, though, don't you?

 Yeah, I do.

 Hey, Frank, you... You think the sheriff's out already?

 - More than likely. - Yeah.

 I had a real fine time tonight.

 - You think so? - Yup. Yeah.

 Hey, I wasn't just flapping my lips about my kid brother and me.

 What I figured was if you and Jesse could gauge our courage and our daring...

 you might just make us your regular sidekicks.

 Your courage and your daring.

 I about heard all I want to about sidekicks. You sound like your damn brother.

 Yeah. Well, I'll be square with you, it's Bob who put me up to it. He's...

 He's got plans for the James boys I can't even get the hang of.

 - They're that complicated. - Yeah?

 Well, you can just get shed of that idea.

 Because after tonight, there'll be no more shenanigans.

 You can jot that down in your little diary.

 September 7th, 1881, the James Gang robbed one last train at Blue Cut...
and gave up their nightriding for good.

 Wait.

 Well, how are you gonna make your living?

 Maybe I'll sell shoes.

 I can't believe I woke up this morning...

 wondering if my daddy would loan me his overcoat...

 and here it is just past midnight...

 I've already robbed a railroad train and I'm sitting in a rocking chair...

 chatting with none other than Jesse James.

 Yeah, it's a wonderful world.

 What's this?

 Oh, yeah.

 I was real agitated this morning, so I was wondering if I would know you or Frank...

 tell you all apart, and so I had this clipping that described you both.

 Want me to read it?

 Go on.

 Well... I gotta find it. Hold on.

 Here. Here.

 "Jesse James, the youngest, has a face as smooth and innocent as a schoolgirl.

 The blue eyes, very clear and penetrating, are never at rest.

His form is tall and graceful and capable of great endurance and great effort.

Jesse is lighthearted, reckless, and devil-may-care.

There's always a smile on his lips..." - All right, all right, all right.

 Well, yeah, then it just... Frank, Frank, Frank. That's nothing. And then...

 You know what I got right next to my bed?

 Is The Train Robbers, or, A Story of the James Boys by R.W. Stevens.

I mean, many's the night I stayed up with my eyes open and my mouth open just reading about your escapades in the Wide Awake Library.

 They're all lies, you know.

 Yeah, of course they are.

 You don't have to keep smoking that if it's making you bungey.

 Alexander Franklin James would be in Baltimore...

 when he would read of the assassination of Jesse James.

 He had spurned his younger brother for being peculiar and temperamental.

 But once he perceived that he would never see Jesse again...

 Frank would be wrought-up, perplexed, despondent.

 My brother and me are hardly on speaking terms these days.

 Well, I wasn't gonna mention it.

 Are you scared?

 No, I'm just surprised a little.

 They ain't as succulent as I like, the devil to clean...

 but if a man skins them and fries them in garlic and oil...

 mercy, them's good eating.

 Well, I never been that hungry.

 I give them names.

 Such as?

 Such as enemies.

 I give them names of enemies.

 Go tell Wood and Charley to get their gatherings together.

 All right.

 Me too?

 You can stay.

 All right.

 Hey.

 - What do you want, peckerwood? - Nothing.

 Except to say Jesse wants you two to gather your parts...

 get on your horses and get out of town.

 And me to stick around.

Well, whoa, I'm his cousin I'll have you know.
My mama's his daddy's sister.

 Is that how they described it to you, Wood?

 You better watch your tongue, young sapling.

 Why is it me who's gotta rattle his hocks out of town and not you, Bunny?

 Put your horns away. If I know Jess...

 there's some real nasty sad-suzie work's gotta be done...

 and Bob's the ninny that has to do it.

 Oh, yeah, I'm sure that's it, Charley.

 You only met him 12 hours ago. He doesn't even know your name.

 Wood! You tell your daddy I'll be in Kentucky in October.

 We can hunt some birds together.

 All right.

 So how come it's Bob who gets to stay?

Bob's gonna move my gear to a house down the street.

 See?

 - I don't mind. - Yeah, well.

 Sounds like an adventure.



They moved to 1017 Troost Avenue at night so that the neighbourhood couldn't get a good look at them or their belongings.

Then BOB thought Jesse would give him eight hours' sleep and a daydreaming goodbye.

But with a second day in the Thomas Howard house, BOB thought he might never go but might be brought in as a good-natured cousin to the boy and a gentleman helper to Zee.

He went everywhere with Jesse.

They made trips to the Topeka Exchange Saloon where Jesse could spend nearly 60 minutes sipping one glass of beer and still complain about feeling tipsy.

BOB would rarely vouchsafe his opinions as they talked.

If spoken to, he would fidget and grin.

If Jesse palavered with another person, Bob secretaried their dialogue, getting each inflection, reading every gesture and tic...
as if he wanted to compose a biography of The Outlaw...
or as if he were preparing an impersonation.

No comments:

Post a Comment