âWhat are you doing at the hideout?â
âI guess I live here. Howâd you survive Argentina?â
âBolivia.â
Longbaugh inspected the manâs clothes. Cowboy clothes, but cheap, not made to last. A costume.
âDidnât see tracks,â said Longbaugh. âNo oneâs been in that cabin.â
âNot in the front part.â
âNo,â said Longbaugh, realizing his mistake. âBut no tracks up here either.â
âGot to taking the other way, in case.â
âThereâs another way?â Harvey, not Howard. Or Pete.
âWell, I reckon we blazed it some eight years back. Damn, itâs really you. You really are alive!â
Longbaugh put his weapon in his belt and walked past the cook and through the tunnel, carrying his lantern and his haversack.
He grabbed the scrub oakâs trunk to pull himself out, and from this angle, looking for it, he saw the second path. It would have been near impossible to see when approaching from the other direction. The cook came out behind him.
âYou said âwe.ââ
âYeah, thatâs, well, you donât know him. Heâs new. Havinâ you here changes everything.â Longbaughâs presence made the man disagreeably cheerful.
âHe got a name?â
âJohn?â
âIs that a question?â
âNo . . . I mean, his name is John.â
âWhat do you go by?â
âWell, they call me, uh . . .â
âTake your time.â
âYou see, sir, we got this plan.â
âYou and John.â
âWell, yeah.â He puffed his chest and looked important. âAnd we promised each other weâd use our new names until we did it. Pulled it off, I mean. And, well, itâs something you know about. We got designs on a train.â
Longbaugh said nothing. The cookâs smile faded until he looked a little ill. The longer Longbaugh was silent, the more uncomfortable the cook became.
âLook, it ainât nothinâ, I mean, you can have your name back. Both names. We didnât hurt âem, much.â
âWhich one of you is Butch?â
The cook stood a little straighter. âOh, I am.â
Longbaugh reconsidered him. He was dressed similarly to the way Parker had dressed. At least the way Parker had dressed when everyone called him âButch.â
âSo, John is . . . ?â
âWell, John grew a mustache and thereâs, you know, a resemblance. Sort of. Or there was.â
The cook uncertainly pointed at Longbaughâs clean upper lip with a timid finger. Then a strange expression crowded his face and he looked down at his own clothes. âAbout Butch. Is he, well, is
he
alive?â
âNo idea. They got it wrong once, maybe they missed him, too.â
âSo waitâso if you ainât dead, who was there?â
âHow would I know?â
âMaybe some guy dressed up like you.â The cook looked down at his own clothes, as if he was considering the irony. âSay, I reckon you could teach us. You could show us. No, wait just a minute, I know! You could come along! We could make a new gang.â
Longbaugh said nothing.
âIâll pick a different name, of course.â
âKeep the goddamned name.â
They descended to the hideout and on the way down the cook mused aloud about âwasnât it somethingâ and âheâs aliveâ and âthis changes everything,â but as they drew closer to the cabin, the cook went quiet with something new on his mind. Just before reaching the cabindoor, the cook said, âHeâs not a bad fellow, sir. And he likes being . . . well, he likes being you. Thatâs a compliment, right?â
The cook opened one of the back doors of the hideout. Longbaugh held back, looking in. He did not like the cramped mess he saw. Clothes piled and dishes stacked, furniture buried under
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