Then there must’ve been an argument about limiting participation, whittling down the gang. Newcomb was too interested in marriage these days and with him went Pierce. That was fine. But my brother Bill couldn’t fathom why Bob would want to cut out Bill Doolin in favor of Grat. “Doolin’s tough and smart and dominating, and Grat, well, he’s my brother and I love him dearly but the poor guy is dumb as a turnip.”

They weren’t convinced and I guess Bill left in a huff that night; then Bob and Eugenia collaborated on a letter to Broadwell, Powers, and me at the Skiatook bunkhouse. They faced each other at the kitchen table, reciting sentences and composing. Eugenia poured tea and Bob leaned on his fist and passed an index finger through the lick of a candle flame, formulating tortuous paragraphs that Miss Moore copied down in her perfect schoolteacher’s hand.

The gist of the letter was that they wanted a gang of five men to attempt a bank robbery in either Van Buren, Arkansas, or Coffeyville, Kansas. Van Buren, because the Clinton County Bank’s president was Chief Marshal Jacob L. Yoes, who’d been Grat’s boss two years ago and chided him on several occasions. Coffeyville, because we knew the town and the banks seemed easy and the Condon and the First National had both had the gall to deny brother Bill a loan.

Eugenia walked with a teacup reading the letter aloud to Bob. “ ‘But our plan is more provocative than it appears, for we choose not just to rob a certain bank in a town, but to rob two banks at the same time! an amazing exploit no other gang will dare duplicate, and awesome enough to overshadow the most famous raids of the James gang and the Youngers and others of that ilk.’ ”

My brother grinned. “Laid it on a little heavy there, didn’t I.”

She shrugged. “You need to evangelize sometimes.”

I received the letter a week later and showed it to Broadwell and Powers in the bunkhouse. They’d signed it, “Yours affectionately,” but just above that scribbled in, “Your comments are solicited.” I didn’t have many, nor did Bill and Dick, and I didn’t hear another word about banks from my brother, so I figured it was just something he’d worked out on paper because he was peeved.