Birds of a Feather

Hosea

"All I'm saying..." Hosea shifted in the saddle of his mount Silver Dollar. "....is we need to start learning from our mistakes. And this ain't that."

Dutch, riding beside him on The Count, scoffed at the suggestion. "We ain't making a mistake with this, Hosea. He controls the whole goddamn city. Getting him out of the way is necessary to the plan."

He kept saying that, but Hosea didn't think Dutch even knew what he wanted to do with Bronte. Ransom him? That was not something they'd ever done before. That was for criminals worse than them even. Killing him in cold blood? They'd fallen far, if that was the case and it went against what they'd once stood for.

All in all, messing with Bronte had only become part of the plan when he'd insulted Dutch. "I don't think it's a good idea."

Dutch clearly wanted to continue the argument, but he closed his mouth at the sight of a rider just ahead of them, holding a lantern to light up the trail.

They remained silent together until Dutch asked of the lone rider, "Is that Arthur?"

Hosea leaned forward, squinting his eyes. "Looks to be."

"How about we let him have the deciding vote?" Dutch asked before continuing scornfully, "Does that sound fair to you, Hosea?"

Resigned, he nodded. "Fine."

"Arthur!"

The man turned in his saddle and slowed when he saw who it was. Dutch quickly rode up to greet him first, likely intending to persuade Arthur before Hosea got a word in edgewise. He heard Dutch say they needed his opinion on a matter.

When Hosea reached them, Arthur glanced between him and Dutch and asked warily, "'Bout what?"

Dutch said, "We take an insult and scurry off like cockroaches or deal with business the right way?"

Hosea put in quickly, "We don't need to take revenge. We hardly know the guy."

Dutch went on his tangent, laying out all the arguments Hosea had been listening to for the past three days. That it wasn't personal, that they had to do it in order to successfully rob the bank, that it'd be an easy and quick job.

Hosea studied Arthur while he waited for Dutch to finish. The boy looked like he hadn't slept in days, his beard was growing out and unkempt, his eyes red and he must've been in some scrape or another. Recent, too. That wasn't unusual, but he seemed distracted. Nowhere near in the mindset for deciding anything, let alone something as catastrophic as possibly murdering a man in cold blood.

When Dutch finished his presentation, Hosea argued, "I disagree. There's always an easier way."

"There ain't no easier way." At that point, Dutch got into his speech, claiming it was the only way to get out of the area. "You wanna leave this place? Leave this country? We need that money."

Hosea shifted in his saddle again, uncomfortable. "It just don't feel good, Dutch."

Dutch continued to make his case and Hosea proceeded to argue with him. He didn't understand why they'd want to anger anyone else right now. Maybe he'd be more on board if they didn't have the Pinkertons on their tail, if they had even one less foe to keep track of.

Finally, Hosea got fed up with Dutch trying to convince him of something he didn't see no point in. Especially when he was going on with some nonsense about farming mangoes.

Hosea said sarcastically, "Forgive me if I can't think too much about the mango harvest—"

"This is it." Dutch glared at him and appealed to Arthur. "Trust me, Arthur."