“I reckon we’ll see about that right after I finish my breakfast,” he replied. “Then we’ll see if you’re worth spendin’ my money on. After that, I think I’ll take a little walk around the front yard to see if that jasper wants to take a shot at me.”

“You hear what that fool’s tellin’ her over there?” Jesse asked his brother. Sitting at a table close by, it was impossible not to hear some of Trip’s boasting.

More intent upon the tough strip of bacon on his plate, Booth paid little attention to Trip’s boastful talk. “He’s just tryin’ to impress Josie, so she’ll think he’s somethin’ special. I don’t know why he cares, she’s just a damn whore. You pay your money and she gives you a ride. She don’t care about anything else. He thinks there ain’t nobody faster’n him with that Colt he wears. He can walk around out in the yard all he wants. Hawk ain’t likely to come ridin’ up to face him to see who’s the fastest with a handgun. He’s more apt to take a shot at him with that Winchester he carries. Matter of fact, it’d be kinda interestin’ if he was to draw Hawk out in a gunfight—might give one of us a chance to get a shot at him.”

“Maybe it would be a good thing if he did draw Hawk out and got himself shot, as long as he wasn’t carryin’ his share of the money on him. Hawk’s already got Tater’s share, I don’t wanna see him get Trip’s, too.” Jesse said it with recent discussions about Trip in mind. With the demise of two of their gang, the brothers had considered the possibility of ending their ties with Trip as well. The cocky gunman was promising to become more of a liability to them. He was fast with a gun, but the trouble was his hand was faster than his brain, and there were occasions when that had caused unnecessary problems. It was Trip who shot Brother Adams and started the massacre of the families on the mule train. Jesse and Booth had not planned to kill all those people, even though they agreed afterward that it might have made their escape easier. It was also Trip who had killed Grover Dean and his wife at that little trading post on the Teton River. The two brothers had talked about the possibility that Trip could go off half-cocked sometime and cause a real problem.

“We’ll see if he goes struttin’ around the yard out there like he’s braggin’ about,” Booth said. “As long as he’s keepin’ that money in his saddlebags where Hawk can’t get his hands on it, he can do what he pleases to impress that whore.”