Heyes and Jim got to together one Saturday afternoon at Jim's place so the former outlaw could acquaint his friend with the latest events in Montana.
"So the K-K-Kid isn't wanted for m-m-murder anymore?" Jim asked, taking a swig from a mug of beer he had filled from a bucket. Beer in bottles hadn't come into fashion yet.
"Not anymore. Deputy Bentley and Gunther got the blame they deserved and the deputy'll swing for it," Heyes took a sedate sip of tea. "Not a nice man." Heyes was doing his best to stay on the straight and narrow, having proposed to Beth and thus laid out the future he wanted as a family man.
"But they still want you on man-slaughter?" Jim inquired avidly. Heyes nodded, grimacing. It didn't make him happy.
"What about the f-f-fifteen thousand r-r-reward?" Jim couldn't get enough of the details.
Heyes shrugged. "That's nothing much to do with the law – it's offered by the railroads and banks, and now a stagecoach company. By rights, the stage coach company ought to take the extra five thousand off for each of us. We've never stolen a penny from them, and now it's been proven in a court of law. They shouldn't have to pay up if we get caught. But they haven't taken it off yet last I heard. Fools – nothing but bad publicity for them all over the West on those new posters. Makes 'em look even less reliable than they are – and they aren't exactly reliable. I've been in stage coach hold ups more than once."
"And that r-r-railroad p-p-president you met, how much of the r-r-reward does his c-c-company offer?"
Heyes laughed, "Most of it, I think! Oh, the fits we gave the Northern Pacific And the little roads they own, too!"
Jim was laughing, too. "What ab-b-bout Wiseman?"
"The West has a new hero! He saved our miserable hides. Yours, too, of course, but nobody talks about that. Be grateful for small favors!" Heyes winked at his friend and took another sip of steaming tea. In the cold of Jim's room, as snow fell outside, hot tea had its benefits.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Marie Homer went to see Beth at the Leutze clinic the morning after Heyes proposed to her. "I'm sorry, Beth," she said, "but we can't be part of your secret Christmas plan to go to Louisville. You'll have to find another chaperone. Charlie's sick with something – it might be the flu. I hope not, but he can't travel. I'm so sorry! I know you and Jed and Cat had set it up so carefully to surprise Heyes. And of course you can't go all the way on the train alone to see a single man – what a scandal! Our pathetic society! I sure hope you can find someone to go with you, but it'll be very last minute."
Beth shrugged. "Don't feel bad, Marie. I'll manage. I've got to! I just can't be gone from him for a whole month now! He needs me and I need him, too. I thought I'd go nuts while he was gone in Montana and I got no word day after day. I felt awfully guilty having Heyes and the Kid get Charlie involved with it all."
Marie shook her graying head. "And I thought a professor's life would be a quiet one! But I must tell you, Charlie found a lot of ways to get into trouble long before Heyes came along. The West and adventure are in his blood and no amount of teaching will ever get them out."
Beth engaged in a quick round of cryptic telegrams back and forth to Louisville before she approached her dear friend Polly, the receptionist, at the end of the day as they put on their warm coats to go out into the New York cold. "Polly, I'm sure you have Christmas holiday plans, but could you change them?"
Polly didn't seem to mind this at all, "I'm just going home to New Jersey to see my folks – that's easy to change if you can make me a better offer!" she replied with a sparkle in her eye. She had a feeling that she knew what was on offer. But while she knew about Beth's relationship with Joshua Smith, she did not know about Hannibal Heyes.
Beth grinned, "How would you like to go out West with me to surprise Joshua with a Christmas visit?"
Polly jumped up and hugged Beth, "Oh, I've always wanted to go out West! I'd love that more than anything! To go with you would be the most fun! And I'd get to see that handsome friend of Joshua's wouldn't I?"
Beth laughed, "Yes! But Thaddeus is engaged to Cat, as you well know, Polly. I'm sure they have other handsome friends – if you like cowboys."
"I love cowboys!" said Polly, "or I think I do – other than Joshua and Thaddeus, I've never met any. When do we leave?"
"Is day after tomorrow too soon? Early in the morning? I'll come by with a cab to get you about 6:00. We'd be out there about a month, so bring plenty of warm clothes." Now Beth's smiled faded, "But there's one more thing. There's a – a secret – I can't tell you now. It's very serious. I have to ask one more person about it and I can't do that until we get there, whether I can tell. But you have to promise never, never to reveal it - if we can tell you. It really is life or death. For more than one person. Would you promise that?"
Polly was no fool. She wiped the wide smile off her face, but couldn't help having her eyes shine with excitement. "It's about Joshua, isn't it? Or Joshua and Thaddeus both?"
"Yes, it is. It's no joke, Polly." Beth looked as if she would bore right through the usually laughing young blonde Polly with her eyes.
"I understand – or as much as I can without knowing what it is. I promise." Polly looked as serious as Beth did.
"Alright." Beth smiled. "Oh, this is wonderful! I'd planned to go with Marie and Charlie Homer because they – they already know. But this'll be so much more fun! Marie is great, but you're like a sister. I've never been West, either, and Joshua has always said how much he thought I would enjoy it."
It seemed like Beth and Polly laughed all the way across the country in the train on the way to Colorado. They had never gotten to travel together before and they turned out to be perfectly suited for it. They loved looking out the window at the changing scenery, and also watching the array of different people who were headed west- miners, nuns, business men, and families moving West. And as they got farther west, there were even cowboy's carrying their saddles. The pair was in high excitement as they arrived in Louisville, Colorado, late in the afternoon in the shadow of the spectacular, snowy Rockies.
The girls had hoped that Thaddeus might be there to meet them, but as they stood on the little open platform, he didn't appear. It was much too cold to wait for him, so they set off carrying their own bags down the street a few blocks to the hotel. Polly looked around at the board walk and the stores with their false fronts, "Oh look, there's a gambling parlor with floosies! And a miner with a mule! And there's a cowboy riding by, and there's another! He's even got a gun on his hip! Oh, it's just like one of Jim's novels!" exclaimed Polly in excitement. Beth smiled. She was excited, too, but she was more impressed with the towering mountains in the distance. And she was far more anxious to see Heyes than any other sight in or out of town.
"But it's kind of scary, too. I wouldn't want to get too close to that drunken miner over there!" Polly clung to Beth. "And that's a pretty disreputable pair of filthy, unshaven cowboys riding by, both with their guns tied down like Jim says the professional gunmen wear them I wouldn't trust them at all!"
Beth caught only a glimpse of the two men riding by. They looked pretty scruffy - in a strangely attractive way. Then Beth and Polly were arriving at Christy's Place, going in the back way as Cat had told Beth about in her letters, so they wouldn't come in through the saloon. It wouldn't be at all proper for two ladies to be seen entering a saloon!
They knocked and Cat answered the door. "Oh, come in, ladies!" the lovely blonde young woman said warmly as she wiped her hands on her apron, "Let me get someone to carry those bags. Bruce!"
The now long-time porter came in with a smile and carried the newly arrived ladies' bags up the back stairs.
"You must be Miss Christy!" exclaimed Beth, "I'm so very glad to meet you! Joshua has told me so much about you – all wonderful! I'm Beth Warren, and this is my friend Mary Moore. We are most grateful to you for putting us up!"
Cat smiled warmly, "Welcome to you both, Miss Warren, and Miss Moore! It's our pleasure to have you – and come so far! Here, take off your wraps and warm yourselves by the stove."
"Thank you very, much, Miss Christy!" said Polly.
"Now both of you must call me Cat, like everyone does here," said the hotel's owner.
"If you like, Cat," smiled Beth. "And you have to call us Beth and Polly!" Cat and Beth both knew that they were almost cousins-in-law already, although Polly didn't know that Joshua and Thaddeus were cousins. "It's a dream come true to get to meet you. I so admire a woman who can make a success in business in this man's world."
Cat smiled back, a bit self-consciously. She was nervous to meet so well educated a lady as Elizabeth Warren was. "And I admire you, making a success in teaching. I never got to finish school and always wished I could know more. I know that it was always Joshua's dream to continue his education. He can't say enough about all you've done for him."
I wish Thaddeus and Joshua were here to greet you both, but they've been away the last three days taking supplies to a friend who lives up in the mountains. I do wish they could convince Mr. Cavanaugh to come down and live among civilized folks, but he won't do it. He used to be an outlaw years ago and he's nervous of law abiding folks. Or rather he thinks we'd be nervous of him. He's on the right side of the law now, and wouldn't hurt a fly, but he worries about his past. So he leads a hard life up there all alone. In fact, I'm a little worried. They should have been back yesterday or even the day before."
Beth, knowing one thing that the Cat did not know yet, was not worried about the boys. She worried only about how Polly would react to this story. If Polly was too appalled by a former outlaw, then they would be well warned about what her attitude about Heyes and the Kid might be. "Oh, the poor man!" said Polly, "It's nice of Thaddeus and Joshua to help him out. They're such nice men, both. I surely hope they're safe!" Beth and Cat smiled secretly to each other at that. It looked good for their own particular outlaws and their confidence in Polly!
Just then the back door swung opened with a blast of cold air and two men in heavy coats and cowboy hats came in, loudly stomping the snow off their boots. Cat, Beth, and Polly all turned to look at the new arrivals. Soon Cat and Beth had big smiles on their faces.
The look on Polly's face transformed from fear and surprise to embarrassment and then delight as she put her hand over her mouth and laughed at herself. The two "disreputable cowboys" who had frightened her so in the street had just come in the door! Beth had recognized them at once. Only belatedly did Polly realized that the two were Joshua and Thaddeus, with their tied down guns and three days growth of beard.
As Cat and Beth went to hug their men, Cat cried, "Boys, look who you're just in time to greet! It's Beth and Miss Polly from New York come for Christmas!"
"Beth!" cried Joshua in shocked delight, but he stepped back from her. "You should stay away, honey, I need a bath and shave before I'm fit to touch. We got caught by a bit of an avalanche up at Cavanaugh's place."
"Yeah," said Thaddeus, "we had to spend a couple of extra days digging out before we could get home."
"Oh, no you don't!" answer Beth with a laugh, "I'm not waiting all that time for the kiss I came seventeen hundred miles to get! That's worth a few bristles!" So Heyes gave his new fiancé a hug and kiss, despite looking more than a little disreputable and being more than a little smelly.
"Ouch! Maybe you were right after all, Joshua. You prickle!" Beth chuckled, rubbing her cheek ruefully.
"You ladies are the best Christmas surprise ever!" exclaimed Heyes, with his eyes aglow as he took off his heavy coat. "Now I've got the best of New York here with me in the best of the West. I will bathe and shave before I touch you, Polly. But I'm mighty glad to see you."
"We sure are happy to have you two to stay for Christmas!" said the Kid, taking off his own coat. "I'm just sorry we weren't at the station to meet you. That avalanche was not according to plan." He and Heyes exchanged a rather nervous glance. They weren't at all sure of how, and whether, they could tell Polly who she was really visiting in Colorado. If they couldn't, it would be a very awkward Christmas and New Year's in the close confines of the hotel where they might well get snowed in together.
After the boys got their hot baths and dressed more formally, Cat offered her lady visitors the chance to bathe as well. After days on the steam train with black soot everywhere, they felt the need.
While Polly was soaking and dressing in the room she would share with Beth, Beth and Cat had their first chance to talk alone in the hotel's back room where the stove glowed orange to keep the Colorado cold at bay.
"I feel ashamed to have two such educated ladies visiting this rough place, Miss Elizabeth," said Cat shyly. "I hope you won't regret leaving civilization so far behind for so long. And I hope an ignorant western girl won't offend you too much."
"You aren't ignorant! You know the most important things I still need to learn. And your hotel seems a very warm and welcoming place to me," answered Beth. "You should be proud of it. Christy's Place is a real haven in the Rockies. I can see what it means to those men coming in from the cold out front." She looked down embarrassed and went on in a very soft voice. "I've been in awe of you ever since Heyes told me about you. When I first learned who he was and I got so frightened that I left him, he said that you would never leave the Kid. I know he's right. If I could be as brave and strong as you are, then I could be the kind of wife that Heyes needs. I can learn an awful lot from you, if you can put up with teaching me."
Cat was speechless at this – she just put out her arms and welcomed Beth into them. They both were wiping tears from their eyes as they embraced. It turned out that for years they had been afraid of meeting each other, but each woman had, in fact, found a friend and even a sister. They were very different, but Cat and Beth immediately starting seeing how much they really had in common.
"What shall we do about telling Polly?" asked Beth softly. "Do we dare?"
"You know her well – what do you think?" responded Cat.
Beth answered thoughtfully. "I trust her, but she can react too quickly sometimes when she isn't familiar with something. I think we should wait and let her get to know the boys better – in their home place here. And, of course, we would have to wait and ask them. Joshua knows how impulsive Polly can be, but like his friend Jim, she's true blue."
Cat smiled at Beth's description of Christy's as the boys' home place. It surely was true and she took great pride in it.
The five of them had a warm, delicious dinner in the back of the hotel that night. No one could deny that Cat was a wonderful cook. And Polly contributed to the warmth by telling silly stories that set everyone to laughing.
"There was an old judge," said she, "who boarded with my parents at their big old place in New Jersey years ago. He liked to be very dignified and dressed in high paper collars and kept his shoes all shined bright. He was so careful about his clothes that he got into his trousers while standing on the bed so his cuffs wouldn't get dusty on the floor. We all knew he did that – you could look through the lace curtains and see him! One day he slipped off the bed and sat right on the stove – and oh how fast he got up again and how he howled!" That set everyone to laughing, so Polly added to it, "And one day our pretty maid, Opal, was writing a love letter to her beau and she had to go answer the door before she finished it. And the old judge came across the letter there on the dining room table and was sure it was for him! And he went around after that maid saying, 'Miss Opal! Miss Opal!' She ran as hard as she could away from that silly old judge!"
Polly appreciated the laugher all around the table, but perhaps didn't understand why Joshua and Thaddeus laughed quite so hard. Of course, they did have a special appreciation for any stories that made fun of judges!
But just when Heyes was about to tell some silly stories back, they heard the sounds from the gambling house out front change suddenly. A scream came from one of the saloon girls and the roar of voices quieted and then surged. The Kid and Cat, and then the Kid and Heyes, exchanged glances. The Kid and Heyes took the lead as the three went out front to see what was going on and what they could do about it. This left a very frightened Beth and Polly alone in the back room.
"I guess Thaddeus can quiet them down, and Cat, of course, has to know what's going on in her own place. But why did Joshua go with them?" Asked Polly in a nervous whisper.
"Because he's Thaddeus's partner," responded Beth without a moment's hesitation.
Polly said anxiously, "I know that, but I've never understood what that means. Nobody has partners in the east – except business men."
"Well, I guess what it means here is that Joshua wouldn't leave his partner alone with any danger." Beth said, answering for herself as much as for Polly. "And Thaddeus would do the same for him."
Shortly, the sounds from the saloon settled down. Then Cat came back to see to her guests. "There was a drunken man with a gun causing trouble, but Thaddeus settled him down and saw him off. And Joshua found the table where he'd been gambling and sorted out the money and the arguments there. Between them, those boys can cope with about anything."
"How did Thaddeus dare to confront a man with a gun?" asked Polly, baffled. "Isn't it dangerous?"
"Of course it's dangerous! But he's used to it and no one would ever challenge him with a gun," said Cat proudly.
"Why not?" Polly asked, innocently.
"Why Thaddeus is the fastest gun in . . . these parts – didn't you know?" Cat answered, as if every school child would know this. Of course, what she really knew was that the parts where Thaddeus was the fastest gun extended to the whole West! But she couldn't say that to Polly – at least not yet.
"No, I didn't know." Polly's eyes were very wide. "Do you think he'd show me his fast draw some time?"
Cat laughed. It would never occur to her to ask a man to demonstrate his draw to a woman! These eastern women were very strange – and very bold. "You'll have to ask him yourself, Polly."
"Just don't ask Joshua to draw against him," added Beth, "He said Thaddeus has been able to outdraw him since Joshua was twelve and Thaddeus was ten! Joshua was so embarrassed by it - they haven't shot against each other since then!"
What Beth didn't include was that the day when the boy Jed had outdrawn his older cousin Heyes had been the day when he had won the name of Kid Curry. Heyes had recounted to Beth how he had told his little fair-haired cousin, "With a draw as dangerous as that, you need a dangerous name to go with it."