Preparations

Mary then walked toward Dolores and explained the situation. Her plan was to offer the bandits a friendly welcome, then invite them to the brothel; she and three other girls would occupy the men’s attention for as long as possible. In case the deputies did not arrive soon enough the sheriff would try to take the bandits out one by one on her own when they were the most ****. Sure, all of the citizens of Tytepoos were armed and they greatly outnumbered the bandits. But the hard-working people could at best hit a barn door at twenty yards, in a real gunfight they might have problems with hitting an actual barn. Bill Munny had dealt with a whole saloon of people and they were all so scared that they could not aim properly. The sheriff could not risk their lives unnecessarily, if there was a chance of dealing with the bandits in a different way. Mary also spoke with her three most trusted girls, so that they would be ready for unusual customers; she also told one of them to prepare Annie’s stage costume; a dance could buy them some more time. Mary put a gun in the cupboard by her bed and a rope underneath the latter; she placed ropes under beds in three more rooms in which she planned to accommodate the guests. She then went down and glanced again at the wanted poster and memorised the faces; she then went outside.

The sheriff did not need to wait too long before four riders entered the town. They rode slowly and while the citizens glanced at the strangers the riders seemed to be uninterested in any interactions. They were riding straight ahead and when they spotted the saloon they headed directly towards it, as if that had been their goal from the very beginning; there Mary was waiting in the shade, but she was not trying to conceal her presence.