Murphy's Laws of Posse Evasion
Low-hanging, thick, gray clouds laden with moisture covered the sky. Distant thunder rolled across the rocky desert landscape, marked with a few deep steep-sided small canyons, ominously signaling an approaching summer storm. Two figures, one dark-haired and one blond, paused in their task of directing the activities of four other men at the bottom of a narrow canyon cut by a presently dry stream bed. They both looked to the darkening sky, eyes met in concern before each increased the pace of the ongoing preparations.
KA-BOOM. A thunderous rumble of moving earth, tumbling boulders, flung rocks and dull thuds of falling scrub followed the sudden explosion. The blast flattened the men at the bottom of the narrow canyon, their arms scrambling to cover their heads. A fine rain of dust and torn leaves fell for several minutes covering the still figures.
Legs twitched, heads lifted and arms pushed bodies onto sides. Gradually one by one, men rose shakily onto hands and knees before staggering to an upright position. Eyes roved the area, taking count and assessing injuries. Thankfully, all were accounted for and bruises, bumps, scrapes, and small cuts seemed the only result from the miscalculation of the "dynamite man".
"Everyone all right?" queried the young, dark-haired leader.
"Jeez, Kyle, how much dynamite did you use?" the older, mustached outlaw demanded.
"Every last stick I had left, Wheat," The small, blond, scruffy "dynamite man" responded as he worriedly looked around. "Heyes did say that he wanted the walls to fall in so there would be no way the posse could follow," he continued defensively.
Six anxious faces stared incredulously at the wall of dirt, boulders, rocks of all sizes and uprooted vegetation directly in front of them. Kid Curry swiped his dirty sleeve across his equally filthy face leaving brown smudge marks across his furrowed brow as he slowly turned, faced the way they had come, and walked several yards away, listening hard.
"Something musta been wrong with the fuse, Heyes, to go off like that." The little outlaw shook his head in confusion as he sought an explanation for his leader.
Lobo stated somewhat accusingly, "You said it was a five-minute fuse, Kyle."
Hank piped in, "Five minutes, hah! It wasn't even five seconds before it blew."
"Yeah, a five second fuse that only lasted three seconds," muttered Wheat.
Kyle continued to shake his head in denial. "I know the box said five minutes, Wheat. Heyes, I'm sorry but I don't know what happened."
Kid turned from the staring down the canyon and strode up to his partner, who was studying the wall of debris. He leaned over and with a sigh of exasperation quietly whispered into Heyes' ear, "I know what happened. We stupidly sent Kyle to buy fuses by himself. He recognized the number five but I bet he couldn't read second. It's the same number of letters as minute - too many together for his tiny brain to handle."
"You think?" Heyes grinned in spite of himself.
The grin disappeared quickly as the first drops of rain fell, damping down the still swirling dust.
"Heyes?"
"What Lobo?"
"You do know we're on the wrong side of all this dirt and rocks, don'tcha?"
"Yes, Lobo, I do," Heyes tore his eyes from all that dirt to wearily look at his gang members, who had formed a nice little semi-circle around him and the Kid.
"The horses, the money, it's all up the canyon," Hank pointed out.
"The posse is a ways back, but it's probably still comin' too," Lobo reminded the group.
They didn't need reminding but all eyes shot to Kid.
"I didn't hear or see anythin' but Lobo's right. With the amount of the haul we took off the train, I don't think the rain will stop them from comin', maybe slow them down some but I guess we only have two to three hours at the most, judging from how far back the last dust cloud I saw was," Kid stated.
Heyes nodded his agreement and settled his hat further forward to keep the increasing rain out of his face. His eyes narrowed in thought.
"Well, here we are with no horses, no supplies, no rifles, shotguns or extra ammo, no shovels, no rope. Trapped! Genius plan, Heyes, what did I…" Wheat started to complain loudly.
"Wheat," Kid's authoritative, deceptively-soft drawl stopped the riled outlaw in mid-sentence. "We don't have time for complainin' right now. Just be quiet and let Heyes think; we'll be over this wall and on our way back to the Hole before you know it."
The sky opened up and the gentle rain became a deluge, doing nothing to contribute optimism to the huddled group of now muddy, wet, unhappy men.
Kyle, who was trying to keep quiet by staring at the ground, suddenly sought fit to announce urgently, "Heyes, we're in a stream bed, in a rocky desert and it's rainin' awful hard."
"Thank you, Kyle, Heyes never would have noticed if you hadn't told him." Kid snapped and glared at each gang member in turn, letting them know that if someone spoke before Heyes, it would be at their own peril.
Heyes could feel everyone's eyes focused on him, waiting for him to share the path out of their present predicament. Unfortunately, he could only see one way and it was far from ideal.
"Okay, listen up everyone," Heyes spoke over the loud noise the raindrops were making as they hit the rock. "We can't go back down the canyon, we can't go through the blasted wall of dirt, so we are just gonna have to go up."
"How, without a rope?" Lobo asked seriously as he looked at the near vertical rocky sides of the canyon.
Heyes stood with his hands on his hips, straight and tall exuding confidence. "Well, I'll tell ya. According to my plan, only one of us has to climb the wall without a rope. We have plenty of rope on the horses. He can carefully climb right over in that section where there seems to be plenty of handholds." Heyes walked over to the area he indicated and placed his hand helpfully on a protruding rock to demonstrate.
"Once he's up on the rim it's only a short hike to the gully leading out of here where we left the horses. He comes back, secures two ropes to something solid. One, we use as a guide and the second the other climbers tie around the waist just in case of a fall. The guy up top can keep that rope taut and haul the climber up if need be. See, it will take a little effort on our part but it'll work." Heyes was satisfied of their chances to escape the blocked canyon before the posse arrived.
"Rain's gonna make those rocks awfully slippery," Wheat observed.
"Now, we need a volunteer for the first man up. I'll go second, to organize things up top. Wheat, you're the biggest of us, you go last so you can hold the guide rope steady as the men climb," Heyes started to give orders.
"I don't know, Heyes, my arm's kinda weak after that graze. Maybe, I should go second and you can organize things down here." Wheat held up his slightly red-stained bandaged right arm to support his version of the climbing order.
"Wheat's right, Heyes. You always say a leader makes sure all his men are safe before he leaves the scene," Kyle offered as he looked at Heyes with his wide trusting blue eyes.
Heyes' brown eyes narrowed as he steadily gazed at the little outlaw but sighed when he decided that Kyle just wasn't knowingly manipulative. "Okay, I'll go last. Now do we have a volunteer to go first?" Heyes asked not really expecting an answer but reluctant to order the one person he knew could make the risky climb successfully to do so.
All eyes stared at the blond, youngest member of the Devil's Hole Gang.
Kid was acutely aware of everyone looking at him as he pushed his wet curls off his forehead, adjusted his hat and stared back at five sets of expectant eyes. Only one set concerned him and Kid read the reluctant, mute plea conveyed by the brown eyes of his partner. He moved closer to the thirty-foot canyon wall, inspecting the rock face, judging the best route up and studying the likely stability of the possible hand-holds and foot-rests.
Hank splashed through the rapidly forming puddles to pat Kid's back encouragingly. "Everyone always says you're part mountain goat, Kid. You're the best climber in Devil's Hole. Why the way you make your way around those mountain animal paths up at the hole…"
Kid spun quickly around and lightly grabbed Hank's wrist. "You can stop now, Hank. I'll do it."
Hank moved back to the group huddling under a small overhang trying to keep out of the worst of the rain.
Heyes moved to Kid's side and quietly started to give advice, "Go slow, be very careful, Wheat's right the rock's gonna be slippery. Move sideways if you need to, don't worry about always going up."
"Heyes, thanks for your concern but I know how to climb. I'll be careful. Broken bones hurt." Kid sought to reassure his cousin as he didn't really relish taking any unnecessary chances and would plan every move up the canyon wall.
Heyes suddenly looked hard at the man standing next to him. "What are you doin' here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be with the other half of the gang?"
"Savin' Wheat's sorry ass, although, I sometime wonder why I bother. Preacher and Hognose had everything and everyone under control so when I noticed most of the posse was headed after your group I cut across and joined you in case you needed my gun. Good thing too, it seems," Kid answered back with a mixture of annoyance and exasperation as he shot a sideways glare at Wheat.
"Well, I'm glad you changed the plan but I'm sure you're not." With an encouraging squeeze of Curry's shoulder Heyes stepped back as Kid reached up with his hands and pulled himself up onto a small ledge. He then tested a good-sized rock about two feet up with his left foot, found a suitable handhold for his right hand and started to climb.
The small group of outlaws watched as Curry slowly made his way up the nearly vertical canyon wall. They could see the water running down the rock face making an already tricky climb more perilous. They appreciated the skill he was using to save a less agile man from almost certain injury if another had made the attempt. There was a collective gasp when at about half way up the wall, the rock Kid's right foot was resting on came loose and went crashing to the ground as he was moving his left foot and right hand up.
Heyes was unable to breathe as he watched helplessly while Kid jerked and his left hand slid off the small wet crevice he was gripping. Curry's right knee slammed into the wall and he started to slide, scraping his front against the rough surface. Hands scrabbled furiously at any protruding surface and fingers tightened with strength born of fear. A foot bumped a tiny ledge and Curry's left boot toe caught a lip in the rock. The slide to bottom was aborted to everyone's immense relief.
Wheat turned to Kyle and sotto voiced explained, "My mamma didn't raise no empty chair. I might not've been in the army but I know enough to don't ever be first, don't ever be last and don't ever volunteer for anything. Am I right or am I right?" He looked up and noticed the tense leader of the gang's hard stare. "What?"
Heyes shook his head in disgust and went back to watching his partner's progress. He noted with dismay the slightly red tinged water dripping from the area Curry had just left and looked hard at how Kid was moving carefully and steadily up the rock face.
Timed moved slowly as the clouds continued to unload their heavy burden of water. Soon puddles merged to form an ankle-deep stream from canyon wall to canyon wall. The men kept quiet until Kyle let out a spontaneous cheer when Kid Curry finally hauled himself over the edge. Heyes glanced back toward the waiting gang and flashed a smile of satisfaction.
Kid lay along the top of solid ground, gathering his breath for several moments, until the urgency of the situation reasserted itself into his consciousness. He stuck his head over the edge, gave a thumb up signal then rose to his feet and limped off as fast as he could.
As the Devil's Hole Gang waited for Kid to return and the ropes to be lowered, Heyes gave his orders. For once there were no complaints and no disputes.
It took over a half an hour for Wheat, Lobo, Kyle and Hank to climb the cliff using the guide rope, held steady by Heyes. Everyone slipped at least once and Hank was especially grateful for Curry's quick reflexes as well as his strong hands and wrists when he misjudged a move up and lost hold of the anchored guide rope. It had taken Curry and Kyle to save him from plunging the twenty-five feet down. Hank didn't even mind the rope burns he was sure he would have around his waist from when they hauled him over the edge.
Kid watched anxiously as his partner made the ascent without the benefit of steady hands anchoring the guide. Heyes' wiry frame hid unsuspected strength, which along with his complete confidence in Curry's ability to handle the safety rope enabled him to travel the distance in record time.
Wheat and Lobo, who were the first ones up, were returning with the horses. The men checked their gear in preparation to be underway, perfectly aware that the $30,000, plus or minus a few thousand, sitting in Heyes saddle bags gave the pursing posse plenty of reason to be still pursing.
Heyes noted the torn pants and shirt, bleeding knees and additional abrasions on his partner as he stopped next to him on the way to his chestnut.
"Thanks, Kid. I know it was a risky, stupid plan but…"
Kid looked up from tightening his cinch and interrupted, "Heyes, if it's stupid but works, it isn't stupid." He nodded to Heyes' horse then looked over at Kyle, who was looking out across the gray landscape. "We've got the haul, no one was hurt in the robbery, we're a little banged up but nothin' serious and the five-minute fuse that was really only seconds did its job. No one is gonna be able to follow us on horses without a long detour around." Curry stuck out his hand palm facing up and looked skyward. "Even this deluge from the heavens is a blessing in disguise as I doubt even a champion tracker in all the west would have an easy time following a trail in this weather." He smiled at his fretting partner and the smile broadened when a dimpled grin formed in return.
Kid put his left foot in the stirrup and called out to Kyle, "See anything?"
"Nope, Kid, but the view is mighty poor," Kyle answered promptly.
"We ride, again."