"Joshua, I'd like you to meet Joe. He tends bar here," said the Kid as his partner shook the pudgy bar-tender's hand. Heyes nodded to Joe and looked uncertainly at the stranger. It was strange to Curry to think that Heyes had been living for more than two weeks at Christy's place, where Joe worked, but the two men had never met. During his recovery, the wounded ex-outlaw had haunted the behind the scenes parts of the saloon and hotel. He had carefully avoided all of the customers and most of the employees when he could neither speak nor understand English. But now that he could understand speech as well as ever, he had dared to venture out with his partner protectively at his side. It was too early for the working girls and customers to have arrived, but Heyes' eyes darted around the nearly empty bar, making sure that no strangers snuck up on him.

The dark-eyed silent man started and looked up uneasily as the saloon door swung opened and a slender bald man entered. The wounded man looked uneasily at his partner. The Kid smiled reassuringly. "Here's Ted, the piano player. In fact, he does a lot of stuff around here for the girls and everybody," said Curry. "Ted, come say hello to my partner, Joshua Smith. He's doing a bunch better."

Ted came over with a friendly smile to shake Joshua's hand. "Hey there, Joshua. Ain't it great he's doing better, Thaddeus? I remember the night they brought him in all shot up and bloody . . ."

Joe jabbed his friend with his elbow. "Cut it out, Ted! Poor man don't want to hear that. Smith, Cat said you might be up to helping me with washing some glasses. I'd be real grateful for some help. We were awful busy last night and I'll never get it all clean before opening without help. That new boy Bruce is off buying some groceries for Cat, so he ain't here to help like usual. Would you help me out?"

Joshua nodded. He would be glad to have something constructive to do. "Good, Joshua," said Joe warmly. "The glassware is all back in the kitchen. Let's go get at it. I'll wash if you dry."

Joshua nodded again. "And partner," said Curry quietly, "if you get tired, just put the glass down and rest. The doc would have my head if I let you overdo it." Heyes nodded shame-facedly. It was hard to cope with the fact that just washing glasses might be enough to tire him.

Joshua was happy to do some work alongside a new friend. They could hear Ted out front tuning the piano while Curry prepared the poker decks and chips and did other routine tasks to prepare for business. Joe washed glasses with practiced rapidity, while his unpracticed and slightly unsteady co-worker dried more slowly. So before he was done drying, Joe had some thank you and gone back out to get the bar ready for business. Before Joe had left, Heyes did start to feel tired. But he waited until he was alone before he pulled up a bar stool and sat down to rest for a few moments. From out in the bar, Heyes could hear Joe and Ted talking. Ted said in his piercing nasal voice, "Joshua Smith sure is shy."

"Well, wouldn't you be if you couldn't talk?" replied Joe.

"I might at least smile at a man who smiles at me."

"Aw, he just ain't up for it yet, Ted. How'd you feel if you woke up and couldn't say word one and didn't know if you ever would? And why don't you try talking to the man instead of past him? He might not be able to talk, but he's still a man like any of us."

The voices fell silent. Heyes put his hand to his head where he'd been shot, feeling the ache that came there sometimes. The wounded man didn't have to hear Joe's voice to know what he might be up against. And to doubt the last thing the bartender has said. He felt a gulf miles wide between himself and men with voices.

Curry walked in to the kitchen. He spoke softly, seeing the sore, weary look in his partner's eyes and guessing that he had heard what had been said out front. "Let me finish that up, Heyes. You've made a good start, but you know what I said about the doc. I meant it. You go up to the room and rest a while. Ain't that long you've been on your feet. You'll be stronger soon."

Heyes nodded, but wouldn't meet his partner's eyes. He walked into the bar because that was where the stairs were that led up to his room. He hated to pass the men he had heard talking about him.

As Heyes passed the men, head down, he heard Joe say, "Hey, Joshua, you hungry? Cat boiled me some good fresh eggs for the bar, just this morning. They're still warm. You want one?"

Heyes looked up at the man and couldn't keep the hurt out of his eyes. He shook his head and hurried up the stairs, holding tight to the handrail. As he reached the landing he could hear Ted saying softly to Joe, assuming the subject of their conversation couldn't hear him, "See? The man just ain't friendly."

"You old music man, how do you know how he feels? Maybe somebody threw an egg at him once or something. I've heard some mighty sad stories over that bar. You can't know what mighta' happened to a man before he tells you. If he could talk, I'd be interested to know what kinda' tale Joshua could tell. Might break your heart to hear it. I try to assume the best about folks, at least until I know better."

The Kid came out of the kitchen to find the working girls starting to arrive. He sought out Peggy. "Honey, I got a feeling Joshua's mighty lonely just now. You know?"

Peggy smiled sympathetically. She knew, so she climbed the stairs without a word.

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The next morning, Joshua came back down to the bar at his partner's side. He didn't really want to, but he couldn't hide away all his life. Ted walked up to him. "Morning, Smith!" Heyes nodded and started to turn away. He was starting to have a healthy dislike for the piano player. "Hey, Joshua. I was thinking – how'd you like to bring your guitar down and play with me some? I get sick of just playing the same old songs by myself all the time with folks ignoring me like I wasn't there. I'd purely love to do some duets."

Heyes shrugged. He wasn't sure if he could figure out how to play a duet. He hadn't ever tried. "Come on, Smith! If you don't know how, I'll teach you," said Ted. Heyes nodded. What could it hurt?

Before long, Heyes and Ted were playing Old Kentucky Home together is decent harmony. Bruce the teenager helper sat on a chair near piano and listened while Thaddeus and Joe got the room ready for the day's business. As the working girls started to come in, Heyes put down his guitar and walked toward the stairs. Bruce clapped. "That sure was pretty, boys! Hope you'll give us another concert soon." Heyes almost smiled, but not quite.

One day, when Joshua and Thaddeus were both in the back room sorting out decks of cards and piles of chips for the gaming that would go on later, Cat padded through the door silently and put her finger to her lips. She looked warningly at them and pointed out to the front room, where the boys could hear Joe the bartender talking loudly to someone saying, "No, we ain't had no such two men show up here. You seen a dark-haired man in a black hat and curly dark blonde in a brown hat, Ted?" No one there had seen Joshua in his black hat, but the identity of the two men had to be obvious to anyone who worked at or frequented Christy's Place. The boys looked out the back door and could saw someone moving stealthily in the alley behind the hotel. So there was no escape that way. The Kid's mouth flew open and he looked at Heyes in desperation.

Cat gestured for Thaddeus and Joshua to follow her. She led them through the kitchen door and reached inside a tall cabinet to move a couple of hinged pieces of wood. Then the whole cabinet swung aside. Behind it was a hidden spot where there was just space for the two men to hide in a crouch, pressed closely against one another. They guessed it might have been made for hiding bootleg liquor or hiding from Indians years before. The secret door was old and long disused. The hidden door creaked so loudly as Cat closed it that that they were afraid the men searching for them would hear it through the thin wall that separated them from the saloon.

The Kid and Heyes stood squashed together and bent over awkwardly in terrified silence, trying to hear what was going on. The employees and regular customers hadn't seen much of Joshua yet, but they had seen him and knew that he and Thaddeus were partners. If anyone, a single dance hall girl, a single customer, anyone at all, didn't keep up the pretense that the bar tender and piano player had started, it would be all over. Jail for the rest of their lives - at the very least. Maybe a shoot-out? And the people who had lied for them would be in deep trouble. That sure included Cat. Two hearts pounded, close enough for each to feel the other's. There was nothing they could do but wait and hope. They hoped that they hadn't accidentally irritated anyone, and that no one was enough in need of money to decide that they would turn the boys in. It was a good thing that no one seemed to know just how much money that might get them. The man questioning people didn't reveal the amount of the reward or the names of the men he was seeking.

As they listened, it was hard to tell what was going on. Just a parade of voices, woman after woman and man after man. They must all being saying no, they didn't care what the guy down the street had said, they knew no such men. There was no commotion, no sudden opening of the hidden space behind the cabinet. Bruce, the skinny newly hired teen-ager who washed glasses, hardly knew the two men and sure could use the reward money. He answered in such a loud, nervous voice that the two hiding men could hear him clearly. They were afraid that he would give them away willingly or no. But he denied ever having seen such men. Somebody was mistaken. The searching men – the boys recognized their voices as men from the posse that had shot Heyes – came back to the back room and the kitchen. They hunted everywhere, opening cabinet doors, looking behind every flower bag, keg, and broom.

Then they were opening the door of the very cabinet in front of Heyes and Curry! It creaked and they braced themselves in absolute stillness and silence, not daring to breath, and praying that the catch that opened to the space where they hid would not open by accident, and that the men would not see the catches that opened the place behind the cabinet. It seemed like forever. The cabinet closed. The hostile voices faded. Minutes passed. Sweat dripped in the hidey hole.

After what seemed a long, long time, the door to the hidey hole opened and Cat led out the stiff, bent over men. Joshua stumbled and Cat had to keep him from falling. She helped him into a chair. He looked his thanks at Cat and hung his head. He knew that if it weren't for his wound, the Kid could have ridden away long ago without putting anyone in such danger, or offering such temptation. Thaddeus told Cat, "You sure have loyal folks, Cat! Every one of them! Not that it surprises me, but it pays tribute to the way you treat people. Including us. We are deeply beholden to you. And to all your people."

Cat gave a crooked smile and said, "After all that, I sure am curious about you two. You keep your secret as long as you like. I don't care how much money it is. I'm not turnin' you boys in. 'Cept for one thing. You ever murder anybody?"

Joshua and Thaddeus exhaled as one. "No!" said Jones firmly. "Neither one of us ever murdered anyone - or asked anyone to murder anyone. . . I admit I've put some bullets into guys in posses on our tails. And I shot a man to death. But it wasn't murder! The sheriff stood right there and saw that guy call me out and refuse to let me leave town without drawing on him. He was damn fast. I had to kill him."

Now it was Heyes' turn to sweat. He would never forgive himself for prodding Danny Bilson into gunning for the Kid. What if Danny had been the faster gun? It was Heyes who really felt that that blood was on his hands. That blood – and more from when he had led the Devil's Hole gang. It hadn't been murder, not by their hands, but it had been death. Hearing the Kid tell that story brought Heyes' guilt to the front of his mind, but it had been constantly in his thoughts all along after he had been shot. He couldn't escape the thought that his current troubles were a direct punishment for his dishonest past and the people who had suffered because of him – from dead gang members, to the people who had lost money in the gang's bank robberies, and most of all the Kid himself. And now Cat and her people could be added to the list of people Heyes saw as victims of his past. He had always tried to think of himself as a good guy, a nice person who had just been in a bad business, but that image made no sense to him now.

Now that Cat was asking the two hunted men about their dark pasts, they looked hard at each other. They could hardly keep their names a secret from Cat now. Heyes nodded at the Kid, who stopped for a minute to search his mind for all the reasons he shouldn't do this. Finally he nodded back. He said to Cat, "If you'll promise not to tell anyone, not anyone, until we give you permission, I think I can tell you our names. But you've got to promise! Your people held firm just now – but they didn't know how much money was on the line. If they knew, there would have to be one – at least one – who'd give way to an awful lot of temptation."

"Alright," Cat said evenly, "I promise. I'll keep it to myself. I've got an idea that I know. I do keep up on the wanted posters. But you tell me."

The Kid took a deep breath and came out with it, "I'm Kid Curry and this is Hannibal Heyes." She gasped at the famous names as her blue eyes looked in the blue eyes of the fastest gun in the West. But she wasn't really that shocked. She had been pretty sure that she had figured it out herself and she had been right.

"It was a good thing that no one in the saloon knew for sure who you were! With that amount of money at stake . . . Nice to meet you Mr. Curry, Mr. Heyes." She said in mock solemnity. "I thought it must be you – who else would be chased that hard and not have murdered anyone? Now we are in this together. What do you want me to call you?"

"I know you'll stick with Thaddeus and Joshua any time anybody else could hear," said the Kid. "But when it's safe you can call me Kid if you like. But - I really would rather you called me Jed – my real name is Jedediah. And my partner here prefers just plain Heyes."

"We've been straight about two years. There's a sheriff up in Porterville, Wyoming – Lom Trevors – who's trying to get the Governor of Wyoming to grant us an amnesty. But the governor's being real cagey. He's watching the political angles. He won't come out and give it to us. So we're still just as wanted as we ever were."

"How on earth do you guys get by with $20,000 on your heads?" Cat wanted to know.

"Well," said the Kid. "That's a lot of long stories. It ain't easy! We've had to leave behind a lot of good jobs and good people. Sometimes we've got close to starving – even with silver-tongued Heyes and his plans."

Heyes winced visibly at that unfortunate phrase. The Kid felt awful – he had slipped and brutally reminded Heyes of how far short he now fell of his brilliant reputation. "Oh Christ, I'm sorry, Heyes!" Heyes shook his head and waved the Kid's apologies away with one hand, but the pained look in his eyes belied the casual gesture. The Kid went on, a bit shakily, "Sometimes we've got close to splitting up. But here we are. Still watching each other's backs."

Cat leaned over and gave the Kid an encouraging kiss and called him "Jed" for the first time.

When the boys went out into the saloon again, everyone at Christy's was sneaking glimpses at the men the posse had been chasing. They wondered as much as Cat had who they really were. But they trusted Cat and no one asked any direct questions. Cat knew her people – they would go to her, not to Thaddeus and Joshua.

The Kid caught even Cat giving Heyes long looks that night at dinner. She felt for the silent Heyes even more than she had for Joshua. She now appreciated that he had gone from leading the most famous gang in the west to running from the law to being unable even to talk or look after himself. How he stayed sane, she didn't know. Maybe he didn't. Since he couldn't talk, it was hard to know.

It was a strange feeling for the Kid and Heyes to have someone who hadn't known them for long, yet whom they actually trusted enough to know who they were. They knew – or certainly hoped - that Cat wouldn't turn them in, but it was hard to trust anyone that much. They kept kind of looking over their shoulders a bit, sometimes physically as well as mentally.

And they were extra special sure to be very, very nice to the bar tender, the piano player, and the saloon girls. And Bruce!