July 5, 2025 • 11 mins
Dive into the gripping narrative of Thieves Like Us, also known as Your Red Wagon. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, it tells the story of Bowie Bowers, a young prison escapee who, along with two accomplices, sets his sights on a daring bank heist. As plans unravel, Bowie finds himself entangled in a passionate love affair with Keechie, a relative of one of his partners in crime. This classic noir tale of doomed lovers on the run has been immortalized in film not once, but twice. Originally by Nicholas Ray in 1940s They Live By Night and later by Robert Altman in 1973s rendition of Thieves Like Us. Join us as we delve into this captivating tale. - Synopsis by Ben Tucker
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter nine of Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson. This
LibriVox Recordings and the Public Do Mean Read by Ben Tucker,
Chapter nine. On the afternoon of their third day in
the clear Waters Stucco, Chickamau became staggering drunk and bumped
around the house, his shirt tail hanging and demanding who
in the hell had hid his tequila. Maddie and Lula
(00:23):
threatened to leave, and Tee Dove became white faced. Bowie
finally got Chickamau into the back bedroom. Come on, now, Chickama,
he said, and sleep awhile, it'll be good for you.
I'm not sleepy, Chickamau said, I'm drunk. Ohm on telling you.
I'm drunk, But two things I like to do and
I was love and drinking. There ain't enough women here
(00:45):
to go around, so I'm drinking. What do you think
I left ALKI for? Don't talk so loud, Chickamau, Well
do you think I left ALKI four? To drink chickery
coffee and look at art magazines? Take it easy, now, Powell.
All right, old boy, old boy, old boy, you're scaring
(01:06):
them girls. Let old batle ax leave. Snap out of it.
Chickamau old country boys telling me what to do. You're
just a big old farm boy, Bowie. But god damn it,
you got something and I don't mind telling you. I
can't figure it out. Let's you and me shill out
this place, Bowie, go up to Oklahoma. Let's get us
(01:26):
a bus and go to Dallas and get us a
packer and throw us a good one. You're going to
Oklahoma with me, aren't you Powell. We ought to cool
off here a few more days. There's still some heat
out there. You're going to Oklahoma with me, aren't you Pow.
We'll talk about that later. What you want to do
now is get yourself some sleep. You gotta snap out
(01:47):
of it. Man. That real estate man was in here
this morning taking an inventory, and he big eyed around plenty.
And that man come up to the front door and
said he was a census taker. Might just be nosy
and there might be a little war around this place,
or you know it. I'm going to Oklahoma with me,
arn't your pal. We'll talk about that after you sleep
a while. That and going to Mexico. Come on now, Bowie,
(02:11):
wouldn't she like to go up to Oklahoma and see
that little cousin of mine, she's not interested in seeing me.
That hometown of mine is just forty five miles from there.
I want to see my folks, Bowie. I gotta see them.
I'd like to see d and get three or four
hundred dollars. Jackamal compressed his lips and closed his eyes,
(02:32):
and there was a whistling in his nostrils as he breathed.
Bowie watched him for a little while and then bent
down to Unlace's shoe. Jackima's eyes opened. You know why
I want to go to Oklahoma? Sure, boy, see your
old man and old lady. And you want me to
go along and stand on the corner with that pump
gun of mine and see to it that nobody comes
(02:53):
nosing around. Well, you know you want me to say
hello to your folks. My folk know what I want,
and I gotta take them the money to do it with.
And folks, mind, haven't got a pod or a window
to throw it out. And I gotta get them some money, Bowie.
They ain't going to catch me floating around and no
tanking them doctor schools if they ever get me. That's
(03:13):
what they do to you if you can't pay the undertaker.
They'll throw you in one of them tanks and carve
on you. You must be drunk boy to talk that way.
I want to be planning right, God damn it. I'll
give them every cent of it, and I want to
be planted rock. I'll go get you a cold tow.
Don't you leave me, boy. Tee Dub came in. His
(03:34):
shaven face had a pink flush now, and his hair
was as white and soft as a baby's brush from
the vinegar washing Lula had given it. He touched his
forehead in a salute, failing batter. Chick them all? Who
hit that tequila? Tea dub Man, I don't know where
it is. Tell that battle axe to route it up.
You're drunk, man, but you better start quieting down. Tee
(03:56):
Dub said, Oh fox it. Chickim Maw said, oh foxy.
Maddie came in holding out a magazine. Maybe this will
sober him up some. She said it was a true
detective magazine and on the opened page were all their
pictures Oklahoma Fugitives one hundred dollars reward. Bowie brushed it back.
(04:21):
He don't care about seeing that thing. Go burn that
damn thing. Up, Tea Dub and Maddie left. Bowie going
to Oklahoma with me. If you'll go to sleep now,
I'll go. I don't mean that, boy, I'll go with
you anyway, and I'll go to Mexico with you. Boy.
That sure suits me. Bowie lowered himself to the edge
(04:44):
of the bed and after a little while chick him
on slept. Bowie went up to the living room and
there were Mattie and Lula standing at the door, dressed
up and bags around them. Tea Duve was pale again.
The girls are going down to the penitentiary to see
my bud, he said, I'm gonna take them to the depot.
Bowie nodded, your friend decided to quiet down. Mattie said,
(05:07):
the short fur jacket looked like she had another bag
under it. He's all right, Bowie said. I was telling
them there's not a finer boy when he's sober. Tee
Dub said he's all right. Bowie said, I hope we
see ye again soon, Bowie. Lula said there was lipstick
salve on her chin. Goodbye, Bowie said. After Tee Dub
(05:31):
and the girls left, Bowie went back to the bedroom
and looked at Chickamaw. He was snoring and had his
mouth open. It was growing dark, and Bowie stepped over
and raised the blind a little. Then he sat down
on the bench in front of the vanity. I'll go
on up there with him, he thought. There's nothing else
for me to do, and there's gettin to be too
many women around this joint. I'm ready to go to
(05:52):
Mexico right now myself. If these boys want to rob
that bank at Gusherton, and I'll help him, but I'm
ready to clear out of this myself. The breathing sounds
in Chickamaw's throat sounded like air escaping from a flabby tire.
Mexico deer and wild turkey and cougars and bears. Even
a four to fourteen Winchester would be the best for
(06:13):
deer a bear. Now that's something I'll have to do
some figuring on when I get down there. Christ if
I was in Mexico with a twenty two, I would
be satisfied, and just rabbits to hunt. Let me down there, man,
and I'll run them rabbits down on foot. The front
door sounded and Bowie went up to the living room.
(06:33):
It was Tee Dub. He went over and sat down
on the divan and began flecking at bits of cigarette
ash on the blue serge of his broad thighs. I
hated to see that little girl go, he said, We'll
see her again. Bowie said that chickamaull back there has
got it down all wrong. Tee Dub said, you can't
(06:54):
make women of money on the barrel head proposition, love
them and leave them. It don't work when you meet
somebody decent. He's nuts though. This business is no good
for a girl. Bowie said, that's what he means. Where
would we have been if it hadn't been for Maddie.
I know it. It's a proposition. Te Dub said that
if Bowie and Chickamau went to Oklahoma, he might go
(07:16):
down to Houston and try to get Lula to go
off with him on a little trip to Galveston or
New Orleans. Maddie would come back and keep their houses
held down. He had given her two thousand dollars to
buy a car and have something to run around on.
Bowie said he and Chickamau would come in and do
their part on that two thousand. In the distance, a
siren sounded and they looked at each other and listened.
(07:38):
The sound grew nearer, and then they heard the bells
of the fire engine clinging, and they relaxed. But I've
been thinking, Bowie, and you're not gonna get three together
like us again, Nora, a setup like we got now.
In a couple of months, if we just stay foxy,
we're gonna have fifty thousand apiece, and then we'll be
the time to back off for keeps. If we're going
to charge that bank at Gusherton in favor of doing
(08:00):
it and getting it over with, teet Up shook his head.
He's banks out here looking for trouble. Now. Look at
what happened to those two kids day before yesterday, trying
to work right in our heat. You kill somebody though,
like they did, and your heat gets really hot. They
were hoosiers. Bowie began cleaning his fingernails with a split match.
(08:23):
What I want to do, teet Up said, is get
me about fifty thousand salted away and invest it in
one of them big syndicates and get it paid back
to me two or three hundred dollars a month. I'd
like to find me a doctor that's a thief. Like us,
and get him to saw off these fingerprints. And I
grow a beard about a foot long and rear back
(08:43):
up in them Kentucky hills on that little farm and
let the mistletoe hang on my coattail for the rest
of the world. I hate to stay cooped up like
this in the house, Bowie said. I'm like a mule,
though I never know what I do want. You got
to put up with things. I don't care how you
make your money, and you take a chance in anything,
take them aviators. I got a cousin that's in the army,
(09:05):
and he was righting my bud and telling him how
he was solo and around up there. I bet that
kid don't last as long as I do. I know
I'm in this a lot deeper than I'm planning to be.
I'm going to be like that Indian back there. I
guess go up this road as long as I can win,
lose or draw. I made my mistake when I was
a kid, teet Up said. He lifted his leg and
(09:27):
looked at the polished toe with a shoe critically. But
a kid can't see things. I should have made a lawyer,
or run a store, run for office, and rob people
with my brain instead of a gun. But I never
was cut out to work for any two or three
dollars a day and have to kiss somebody's behind to
get that. I don't guess I could have done anything
else except what I have. But we said what will
(09:48):
be will be a little after midnight, Chicken Maw's feet
padded in the hallway, and then he came into the
lighted room, rubbing his nose and twisting his face. Got
a cigarette and he said. Bowie gave him a cigarette.
Chicka Maw went over and sat on the divan by
Tee Dub. The cigarette trembled in his hand, and he
(10:08):
began rubbing his ankles together, and finally he reached down
and scratched the left one. What Tom is it getting
to be? He said? After twelve, Bowie said, what have
I been doing around here? Chickamau said, I feel like hell.
You just been gozling a little. Teetub said, the girls left,
(10:29):
did they? They went down to see my bud. Chicka
Maw scratched his other ankle and then his elbow. Bowie
and me have been talking business. Tee Dub said, if
you boys are going to Oklahoma? What do you say
We let things rock for about a month, and all
of us meet up again in that town. In Gusherton, say,
November fifteenth. The cigarette fell out of Chickamav's hand and
(10:50):
he grunted as he picked it up. Suits me. I'm in,
Bowie said, November fifteenth. And Gusherton then Teetub said, boys,
if we sacked them up over there, it will be
my thirty first end of chapter nine.
Chapter nine of Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson. This
LibriVox Recordings and the Public Do Mean Read by Ben Tucker,
Chapter nine. On the afternoon of their third day in
the clear Waters Stucco, Chickamau became staggering drunk and bumped
around the house, his shirt tail hanging and demanding who
in the hell had hid his tequila. Maddie and Lula
(00:23):
threatened to leave, and Tee Dove became white faced. Bowie
finally got Chickamau into the back bedroom. Come on, now, Chickama,
he said, and sleep awhile, it'll be good for you.
I'm not sleepy, Chickamau said, I'm drunk. Ohm on telling you.
I'm drunk, But two things I like to do and
I was love and drinking. There ain't enough women here
(00:45):
to go around, so I'm drinking. What do you think
I left ALKI for? Don't talk so loud, Chickamau, Well
do you think I left ALKI four? To drink chickery
coffee and look at art magazines? Take it easy, now, Powell.
All right, old boy, old boy, old boy, you're scaring
(01:06):
them girls. Let old batle ax leave. Snap out of it.
Chickamau old country boys telling me what to do. You're
just a big old farm boy, Bowie. But god damn it,
you got something and I don't mind telling you. I
can't figure it out. Let's you and me shill out
this place, Bowie, go up to Oklahoma. Let's get us
(01:26):
a bus and go to Dallas and get us a
packer and throw us a good one. You're going to
Oklahoma with me, aren't you Powell. We ought to cool
off here a few more days. There's still some heat
out there. You're going to Oklahoma with me, aren't you Pow.
We'll talk about that later. What you want to do
now is get yourself some sleep. You gotta snap out
(01:47):
of it. Man. That real estate man was in here
this morning taking an inventory, and he big eyed around plenty.
And that man come up to the front door and
said he was a census taker. Might just be nosy
and there might be a little war around this place,
or you know it. I'm going to Oklahoma with me,
arn't your pal. We'll talk about that after you sleep
a while. That and going to Mexico. Come on now, Bowie,
(02:11):
wouldn't she like to go up to Oklahoma and see
that little cousin of mine, she's not interested in seeing me.
That hometown of mine is just forty five miles from there.
I want to see my folks, Bowie. I gotta see them.
I'd like to see d and get three or four
hundred dollars. Jackamal compressed his lips and closed his eyes,
(02:32):
and there was a whistling in his nostrils as he breathed.
Bowie watched him for a little while and then bent
down to Unlace's shoe. Jackima's eyes opened. You know why
I want to go to Oklahoma? Sure, boy, see your
old man and old lady. And you want me to
go along and stand on the corner with that pump
gun of mine and see to it that nobody comes
(02:53):
nosing around. Well, you know you want me to say
hello to your folks. My folk know what I want,
and I gotta take them the money to do it with.
And folks, mind, haven't got a pod or a window
to throw it out. And I gotta get them some money, Bowie.
They ain't going to catch me floating around and no
tanking them doctor schools if they ever get me. That's
(03:13):
what they do to you if you can't pay the undertaker.
They'll throw you in one of them tanks and carve
on you. You must be drunk boy to talk that way.
I want to be planning right, God damn it. I'll
give them every cent of it, and I want to
be planted rock. I'll go get you a cold tow.
Don't you leave me, boy. Tee Dub came in. His
(03:34):
shaven face had a pink flush now, and his hair
was as white and soft as a baby's brush from
the vinegar washing Lula had given it. He touched his
forehead in a salute, failing batter. Chick them all? Who
hit that tequila? Tea dub Man, I don't know where
it is. Tell that battle axe to route it up.
You're drunk, man, but you better start quieting down. Tee
(03:56):
Dub said, Oh fox it. Chickim Maw said, oh foxy.
Maddie came in holding out a magazine. Maybe this will
sober him up some. She said it was a true
detective magazine and on the opened page were all their
pictures Oklahoma Fugitives one hundred dollars reward. Bowie brushed it back.
(04:21):
He don't care about seeing that thing. Go burn that
damn thing. Up, Tea Dub and Maddie left. Bowie going
to Oklahoma with me. If you'll go to sleep now,
I'll go. I don't mean that, boy, I'll go with
you anyway, and I'll go to Mexico with you. Boy.
That sure suits me. Bowie lowered himself to the edge
(04:44):
of the bed and after a little while chick him
on slept. Bowie went up to the living room and
there were Mattie and Lula standing at the door, dressed
up and bags around them. Tea Duve was pale again.
The girls are going down to the penitentiary to see
my bud, he said, I'm gonna take them to the depot.
Bowie nodded, your friend decided to quiet down. Mattie said,
(05:07):
the short fur jacket looked like she had another bag
under it. He's all right, Bowie said. I was telling
them there's not a finer boy when he's sober. Tee
Dub said he's all right. Bowie said, I hope we
see ye again soon, Bowie. Lula said there was lipstick
salve on her chin. Goodbye, Bowie said. After Tee Dub
(05:31):
and the girls left, Bowie went back to the bedroom
and looked at Chickamaw. He was snoring and had his
mouth open. It was growing dark, and Bowie stepped over
and raised the blind a little. Then he sat down
on the bench in front of the vanity. I'll go
on up there with him, he thought. There's nothing else
for me to do, and there's gettin to be too
many women around this joint. I'm ready to go to
(05:52):
Mexico right now myself. If these boys want to rob
that bank at Gusherton, and I'll help him, but I'm
ready to clear out of this myself. The breathing sounds
in Chickamaw's throat sounded like air escaping from a flabby tire.
Mexico deer and wild turkey and cougars and bears. Even
a four to fourteen Winchester would be the best for
(06:13):
deer a bear. Now that's something I'll have to do
some figuring on when I get down there. Christ if
I was in Mexico with a twenty two, I would
be satisfied, and just rabbits to hunt. Let me down there, man,
and I'll run them rabbits down on foot. The front
door sounded and Bowie went up to the living room.
(06:33):
It was Tee Dub. He went over and sat down
on the divan and began flecking at bits of cigarette
ash on the blue serge of his broad thighs. I
hated to see that little girl go, he said, We'll
see her again. Bowie said that chickamaull back there has
got it down all wrong. Tee Dub said, you can't
(06:54):
make women of money on the barrel head proposition, love
them and leave them. It don't work when you meet
somebody decent. He's nuts though. This business is no good
for a girl. Bowie said, that's what he means. Where
would we have been if it hadn't been for Maddie.
I know it. It's a proposition. Te Dub said that
if Bowie and Chickamau went to Oklahoma, he might go
(07:16):
down to Houston and try to get Lula to go
off with him on a little trip to Galveston or
New Orleans. Maddie would come back and keep their houses
held down. He had given her two thousand dollars to
buy a car and have something to run around on.
Bowie said he and Chickamau would come in and do
their part on that two thousand. In the distance, a
siren sounded and they looked at each other and listened.
(07:38):
The sound grew nearer, and then they heard the bells
of the fire engine clinging, and they relaxed. But I've
been thinking, Bowie, and you're not gonna get three together
like us again, Nora, a setup like we got now.
In a couple of months, if we just stay foxy,
we're gonna have fifty thousand apiece, and then we'll be
the time to back off for keeps. If we're going
to charge that bank at Gusherton in favor of doing
(08:00):
it and getting it over with, teet Up shook his head.
He's banks out here looking for trouble. Now. Look at
what happened to those two kids day before yesterday, trying
to work right in our heat. You kill somebody though,
like they did, and your heat gets really hot. They
were hoosiers. Bowie began cleaning his fingernails with a split match.
(08:23):
What I want to do, teet Up said, is get
me about fifty thousand salted away and invest it in
one of them big syndicates and get it paid back
to me two or three hundred dollars a month. I'd
like to find me a doctor that's a thief. Like us,
and get him to saw off these fingerprints. And I
grow a beard about a foot long and rear back
(08:43):
up in them Kentucky hills on that little farm and
let the mistletoe hang on my coattail for the rest
of the world. I hate to stay cooped up like
this in the house, Bowie said. I'm like a mule,
though I never know what I do want. You got
to put up with things. I don't care how you
make your money, and you take a chance in anything,
take them aviators. I got a cousin that's in the army,
(09:05):
and he was righting my bud and telling him how
he was solo and around up there. I bet that
kid don't last as long as I do. I know
I'm in this a lot deeper than I'm planning to be.
I'm going to be like that Indian back there. I
guess go up this road as long as I can win,
lose or draw. I made my mistake when I was
a kid, teet Up said. He lifted his leg and
(09:27):
looked at the polished toe with a shoe critically. But
a kid can't see things. I should have made a lawyer,
or run a store, run for office, and rob people
with my brain instead of a gun. But I never
was cut out to work for any two or three
dollars a day and have to kiss somebody's behind to
get that. I don't guess I could have done anything
else except what I have. But we said what will
(09:48):
be will be a little after midnight, Chicken Maw's feet
padded in the hallway, and then he came into the
lighted room, rubbing his nose and twisting his face. Got
a cigarette and he said. Bowie gave him a cigarette.
Chicka Maw went over and sat on the divan by
Tee Dub. The cigarette trembled in his hand, and he
(10:08):
began rubbing his ankles together, and finally he reached down
and scratched the left one. What Tom is it getting
to be? He said? After twelve, Bowie said, what have
I been doing around here? Chickamau said, I feel like hell.
You just been gozling a little. Teetub said, the girls left,
(10:29):
did they? They went down to see my bud. Chicka
Maw scratched his other ankle and then his elbow. Bowie
and me have been talking business. Tee Dub said, if
you boys are going to Oklahoma? What do you say
We let things rock for about a month, and all
of us meet up again in that town. In Gusherton, say,
November fifteenth. The cigarette fell out of Chickamav's hand and
(10:50):
he grunted as he picked it up. Suits me. I'm in,
Bowie said, November fifteenth. And Gusherton then Teetub said, boys,
if we sacked them up over there, it will be
my thirty first end of chapter nine.
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