Jim had been watching Heyes intensely through the whole discussion with Wiseman and the professor. There had been a decided transition between when Professor Homer was in charge, and the moment when Heyes had taken over. That had happened as soon as important information began to come out about the Kid's situation. It was as if Jim was seeing his former roommate for the first time – or the second. Most of the time that they had known each other, Jim's friend had been Joshua Smith, aphasia patient and math student and way better than decent poker player. Now, as he sat questioning Wiseman and preparing the information he needed to rescue his partner, the man was all Hannibal Heyes. He was in charge. He knew what questions to ask and how to build on each piece of information that came his way. It had been the same when he and the Kid had thrown the Teasdales out of Christy's Place – they might not be happy about what they were doing, but they were masters of it. Jim was riveted.
But now that the important things had been said and Heyes and the professor were merely explaining to Wiseman the old story of how Heyes and the Kid had gone straight and were going for amnesty, the drama had faded from the exchange. Jim yawned and curled up in his bedroll near the fire.
It was growing late and the details of the story would have to wait. Heyes and Homer, exhausted from their long ride, were yawning themselves. Particular plans would have to wait for the morning. Wiseman worked kind of irregularly for the Crazy N Ranch, but he would have to be up and out early to cope with the horses and to patrol some parts of the ranch he kept a particular eye on. So he begged off of any later talk and went to bed on his little cot while Heyes and the professor curled up in bedrolls on the wooden floor. It wasn't soft, but as Heyes pointed out, at least there were no roots or rocks or snakes to cope with.
The sun came up early as the spring was well advanced, and Wiseman was out not much later to look after his horses and ride around his end of the ranch in search of any trouble. After Wiseman left the cabin, Jim and the professor tried to go back to sleep for a little while. But Heyes moaned and slowly sat up. It had been months since he had ridden so far and longer than that since he had slept on a wooden floor. It seemed as if every muscle in his body was in its own state of agony. Heyes hated getting up early, but it made him nervous to have no one awake and actively guarding the cabin now that the day had started. Heyes bustled around the little cabin in his long underwear, setting some coffee going and warming some biscuits from the night before. He fried some bacon. Eventually the smells of breakfast roused the other two men, the young and the old. They sat around the poet's tiny table eating hungrily. Heyes, having started first, finished first.
"Charlie, do you know which way it is to town from here?" asked Heyes as he buttoned up his navy shirt.
"Yeah, but you aren't going that way, Heyes," answered Homer.
"Oh, you're back to being my advisor, are you?" Heyes sounded just a little irritated.
Homer answered calmly, "When you try to do some damn fool thing like just up and ride into the world's most obvious trap, yes. I'll advise you all I like. That skimpy little red beard of yours wouldn't fool anyone who knew your description, and someone around here sure does know it. If you show some sense – and a little restraint – then I might back off and see if you can come up with one of those Hannibal Heyes plans I've so much about."
"But I can't plan if don't know anything!" Heyes practically shouted, throwing his hands into the air with frustration. "I've got to get some facts. If the Kid isn't in the Lodge Grass jail, who is? Is the sheriff involved in this? What made the Lodge Grass Trumpet go out of business? Did someone plan on that so they could use the name to put all those articles out across the West? Is this plan really run from here, or is the head guy someplace else? What are all the folks on Wiseman's list doing right now? How am I going to find out anything if I can't be seen by anybody?"
"We c-c-can d-d-do it for you, Heyes," said Jim. "You t-t-tell us what t-t-to d-d-do and we'll d-d-do it. Right Charlie?"
"Right, Jim!" agreed the professor. "Jim and I, and Theron can ask the questions for you, and watch people's reactions."
"I have to see them myself!" Heyes insisted.
"Not possible. Move on to the next possible variable to fit in that equation, Heyes," said the professor. "We have voices and eyes and ears just like you do. We can do exactly what you say and bring you the answers. Jim and I can do it, and Theron can be really helpful asking his newspaper pals about the Trumpet."
"Well, maybe you and Jim, but not Wiseman!" Heyes said firmly.
"Why in creation not, Heyes?" asked Charlie Homer. "He knows his way around better than any of us!"
"True, but if anyone figures out that he's asking questions he shouldn't be asking and links him to other people asking questions, like you two, then the whole operation gets blown. Everyone in Lodge Grass, especially around the paper, has got to know who Wiseman is and where he lives. If they can track us here, all our lives could be in danger. We can change headquarters, but Wiseman can't. We didn't come out here to get your friend killed, Charlie." Heyes had turned very serious. "And frankly, Charlie, if you couldn't figure that out without my help, I don't know if I can trust you to handle yourself on this job."
"D-d-do you r-r-really think whoever has the K-K-Kid would k-k-kill, Heyes?" asked Jim with his eyes very wide.
"Yes. Remember what this is about." Heyes looked back and forth between his two friends.
"What?" asked Jim, unsure what Heyes meant.
"Thirty thousand dollars," answered Heyes matter-of-factly. "And before you ask – yes, I've seen men die for less than that. And you've seen them die for that exact amount."
"The T-T-Teasdales?" Jim hadn't thought of their deaths in that light before.
"Yes."
"I thought it was for r-r-revenge."
"That was only part of it, Jim – probably a small part. After we hurt their pride, that money sounded a lot more appealing and they went for it. It's a lot of money." Heyes had given round figures like ten and twenty and thirty thousand dollars a good deal of thought. He knew what men – and women – would do for them.
"Is th-th-thirty th-th-thousand really worth a man's life?" Jim was asking himself as much as Heyes, but Heyes answered. This was one equation he could solve with terribly accustomed ease.
"Two men's lives – the Kids – and mine."
At that very emotional moment, they heard Theron Wiseman scraping his boots outside. He came in and smiled at them, stroking his beard, "You boys awake at last?"
"We are," said Charlie, "and we're ready to get to work, if Heyes will tell us what he needs done."
"First thing, Mr. Wiseman, if you could answer a couple of more questions?" asked Heyes.
"Sure thing, so long as you don't ask me to spy on my friends. If they ever found out, my life wouldn't be worth a plug nickel in that town." Wiseman hung his black hat on a peg and poured himself a fresh cup of coffee in his spatter pattern enameled metal cup.
Heyes put his hands up in a gesture of frustration. "The one man who understands the problem, and he's the one man I can't use! Other than me. Mr. Wiseman, do you know why the Trumpet went bust? Could someone have been trying on purpose to ruin it?"
Wiseman nodded, "Yes, Heyes, and you don't have to call me Mister. Someone was pushing them out'a business, I'm sure of that. Pushing hard, just the last month or so."
"Who?" Heyes was listening hard for this answer.
"Don't rightly know." Wiseman meditatively took another sip of black coffee. "Jeffers, neither pa nor son, the publisher or the printer, would say. Seemed right ashamed of the whole thing – worse than I'd expect from just a regular paper going down. Happens a lot out here, you know."
Heyes took this in and they could practically see the wheels turning. "Just in the last month. That's when it got into the papers that I was alive. Hmn. You think the guy making it hot for the Trumpet was someone in town, or an out of towner."
Wiseman tilted his head and thought a moment. "Think they'd have to be from out of town. Nobody else in town gives a damn about newspapering, far as I know."
Heyes sat and thought for a while, sipping on his own coffee. Then he motioned for his fellow conspirators to come back and listen to him. "I've got your assignments for you. Professor, you're a newspaper reporter just passing through. Better make you from Wyoming, since you are. Go hang out in that saloon where the paper was put out, and anyplace else you think might be good to listen to gossip."
"Blacksmith's is usually pretty good for that," Charlie volunteered.
Heyes nodded. "You can pick out your spots when you see the town. Feel around to see if there is any talk at all of the Kid being arrested, here or anywhere, or any talk of lynching anybody at all. But the tough thing is, you can't ask directly. Otherwise you'll start the same rumor you're looking for! And you could make people start watching for the Kid – and for me! You have to find ways to hint around the edges and watch their eyes as much as you listen. Just feel around, real careful. And watch for disagreements – if some people seem just all nice and calm and somebody else is agitated, or wants you to be. That could be innocent versus conspirator. Whatever happens, if you catch the faintest whiff of anything about the Kid or arrests for violent crimes or lynching, ride out of town going real easy in another direction. Then circle back here fast as you can when you're sure – and I do mean absolutely positive – that you aren't being watched. And whatever you do, stay away from the sheriff's office! We don't want the sheriff or the deputy to get wind of you or to try to lead your wrong. They might be involved. Got all that, Professor?"
Homer gave Heyes a mock salute. "Yes, sir!"
"By the way, Wiseman, is it true, among all that fiction, that the sheriff here has just one deputy?" The poet nodded. "And is this man Pohank a fast draw?"
Wiseman spat into the fire. "He's pretty swift. Not that I think he could beat the Kid – not if what I hear is true – but he's decent fast. Kind of has to be, as I guess you know better than I do."
Heyes nodded. "There are slow sheriffs – but they generally have fast deputies! Jim, I'm going to ask some real acting of you – you got to tell me if you don't think you can do it. I think you can. You ride into town a lot like you did when you went to Louisville – be pretty much what you were then. Be an eastern tourist come to lap up the West! That's about all we can pass you off as and not get caught. Go into the saloon first and be all enthusiastic. I know you can carry that off. If you see Mr. Wiseman here or the Professor, or anybody else you know - you never saw them before. No smiles, no nods, no secret looks – nothing. Play it totally straight – assume you're being watching even if you're sure you aren't. Tell them you're camping out in the hills – just make sure you're staying far from here! Ask Mr. Wiseman for likely spots.
Jim, your real assignment will be the sheriff's office. You're going to go in there and stare around like a total greenhorn – even more than you really are."
"Not a green h-h-horn any m-m-more!" smiled Jim.
"Oh yes, you are!" grinned Heyes back, "And we'll use that to our best advantage, so don't mess with it! Go stare around the sheriff's office – look at the wanted posters – see if they have posters out on the Kid and me. If they do have ours up, memorize what they say, if you can do it without being obvious. There are several versions and I really need to know which one – the descriptions vary quite a bit."
"I c-c-can d-d-do it!" nodded Jim.
"Good!" Heyes went on, "OK, then the really important stuff starts, all the while you play dumb and ask silly questions. First off, see who's in the cages – if anyone is. If it's the Kid or someone who looks like him or who. And if it's the Kid, his life could, and your life sure does, depend on your not knowing him from Adam. Again – no shared looks, no winks or nods – nothing. He'll know what's going on and can act as well as any Booth on the stage. And make sure to notice how he is, if he's there, which I doubt. But if he is – make sure that, even if he's pretending to be asleep – you try to figure out if he's hurt or drugged or anything like that." Jim nodded, paying utterly close attention.
"And then, if he's not there, you've got to find a casual way to drop the Kid's name and, if you can manage it without pushing it, my name, too. Do it so you can watch the eyes of the sheriff and his deputy, if he's there. Watch those eyes! If they look startled or nervous or glance at a back room or a window or anything like that, let me know every detail. You can't look as if it's important to you, but it's got to be vital to you. If the sheriff's involved, we've got to know it." Jim nodded again. "And you do know – I assume you know – that you've got to watch that office before you go in – to make sure the sheriff is there. They got out and patrol a lot."
"Of c-c-course!" exclaimed Jim.
"What's sheriff Pohank look like, Wiseman?"
The poet gave his answer to Jim, "Middle height – about like Heyes, here. Black wavy hair. Big, long nose. Fuzzy mustache. And a yin star, don't you know!" Wiseman winked at Jim. "Deputy's bigger guy, brown straight hair, scar down his neck. Only other guy with a star."
"Thanks, Wiseman!" said Heyes. "And both of you, being watching for anybody on Wiseman's list – you got those names by memory? Joshua Jeffers, the publisher and editor; the printer, Ted Jeffers, his son; Willkie Sorenson who supplies the paper; Ren MacAvoy, the reporter, Jimmy Worth, the boy who distributed the papers; and maybe he's a relative Worth Hawes, the guy who runs the saloon. Wiseman, if you can give us a description of each guy, please."
The other three stared at Heyes. Jim and even the professor would have been hard-pressed to have remembered one or two names from that list they had heard the night before when they were exhausted and distract. Heyes had the list of men memorized perfectly, just as Wiseman had given it to him.
"Heyes," said the professor, "you have the dangest memory I've ever come across in all my years in academia! No, we do not have that list memorized!"
Heyes wrote it out for them, while Wiseman described each man in his cogent way. Heyes and the professor helped Jim to memorize the list, using memory tricks they had learned to use on tests. Neither man could dare to carry such a list with him – if dropped it could be very dangerous.
"I'm r-r-ready, Heyes!" said Jim proudly, the list principal suspects committed to memory.
"No you aren't, Jim." Said Homer. "You don't yet know how to get back here or when."
"Oh." Said Jim, realizing there was more to this than he thought.
"Professor's right," said Heyes. "But before you come back here, go back to the saloon and drop the Kid's name and mine, watching around real careful. Don't do it too close to the Professor – don't want him damned by association. And watch the eyes. If anyone jumps or looks nervous or sneaks out or anything at all, memorize it all and tell us. Wiseman can help us to figure out who it was – so pay attention to what the guys who react look like. Then ride out while it's well still light and get here kind of round about. Even if you got big news, unless it's life or death fast news, you can't come straight in. I'd say watch you aren't tailed, but it'd be no good – doubt you could spot a tail."
"I sure c-c-could! Easier out here in th-th-the open than in t-t-town!" Jim asserted his skills proudly.
Heyes nodded. "Guess you got a point there, Jim. Now what name you gonna use – and don't forget it!"
"Jim Hoines – how's that? Hoines was an old f-f-friend and I want a f-f-first name I c-c-can't mess up." Jim looked at Heyes eager for approval.
Heyes smiled, "So long as it doesn't turn up on one of those books of yours!" Jim shook his head, but grinned.
"And I'll be Hollister McCord," said the professor. "He was an old friend of mine – always loved that name and wanted an excuse to use it. He's dead, so he can't use it himself any longer."
After that, Heyes helped his friends to get their back stories straight, quizzed them on their names and assignments, and helped them to adjust their clothing and gear to their new characters.
"You really ought to be a great professor, Heyes!" said Homer admiringly. "Or maybe a theatrical director! You can teach and direct like nobody's business!"
Jim grinned at Charlie Homer. "Wow, we're p-p-part of a real Hannibal Heyes p-p-plan!"
"Hope it works out better than the one that got them both shot!" said Homer, as Jim rode off. Jim was proud to lead the way. Heyes wanted to be sure the two didn't ride along together or arrive in town too close together. The professor had a lingering cup of coffee and a little early lunch with Wiseman before he rode off an hour later.
After he watched his advisor ride away, Heyes turned to his host. "Gosh, do you think I told 'em all they need?"
"If I didn't, I'd have told you, a course!" said Wiseman. "Now I got to ride out for a while. I'll be back by noon."
Heyes neatened his packed clothing, went to look after his horse, nervously looked at his still very short beard in Wiseman's tiny shaving mirror, and generally paced around in an agony of nervousness. He had no idea what to do with himself while he waited for his intelligence to come back in, desperately hoping his friends would be safe. And he was about to perish of anxiety and curiosity about where the Kid was – and how he was.