$73
"You call that having my back?!" Kid's eyes blazed. His face quickly turned from anger to pain as he grimaced. He leaned forward in his saddle, his hand clutched his wounded leg, trying to stanch the flow of blood that seeped through his parted fingers.
Heyes started to bristle but was quickly overcome with concern for his partner.
"Sorry my gun jammed."
"Well it wouldn't have jammed if you'd clean it once in a while instead of bitching about me cleaning mine all the time."
"I don't bitch.." Heyes said, trying to defend himself as he ripped the bandana into pieces. "Get off your horse before you bleed to death."
Kid scanned the horizon. Heyes didn't raise his head but concentrated on shredding the cloth.
"You sure we lost them?"
"I'm sure," Heyes said as he reached a supporting hand to help his partner off his horse.
"How can you be so sure? Don't want to get off only to have to get back on...which won't be easy thanks to your poor shooting."
"How many times do you want me to tell you I'm sorry?"
"Well…" Kid said, relenting as he saw the genuine pain in his partner's eyes. "How can you be so sure about the posse?"
Heyes gave a heavy sigh, "Because...because we only got $73."
Kid's eyes widened as he held onto a stirrup for support.
"You meant seventy three hundred dollars...Didn't you?"
Heyes kept his head low avoiding Kid's eyes.
"Heyes? You meant seventy three hundred dollars, right? Right?"
Kid sat heavily on the ground, when he realized Heyes was telling the truth.
"Well no wonder we lost them since there weren't no posse and never was. Who in the hell is going to risk their lives for $73 but us." Kid said his voice thick with anger and sarcasm.
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Wheat and the other gang members were eagerly rubbing their hands in anticipation of their share of the loot. Kid settled in the corner, his wounded leg propped up on an extra chair and pillow. After a good cleaning and closer examination, the injury proved not to be as serious as first thought to Kid's relief and Heyes. If he were going to get leg shot he would prefer to get shot for more than seventy three dollars.
Heyes had a lot of explaining to do and Kid wondered if his silver tongue was up to the task of convincing the remaining gang members that as a leader it was okay to have a bad day. He knew Wheat would never accept it and would use it to try and convince the others that it was time for a new leader.
Him.
Kid would watch how it played out, and no matter how mad he was at Heyes there was no way he would allow any harm to come to his cousin.
Heyes cleared his throat, "In the world of thieving...There are hits and there are misses. Well today was one of those…" Heyes cleared his throat again and forced a strained smile on his face. "Misses."
"Weren't a miss for poor Kid here," Kyle said, giving him a sympathetic look. Kid gave Kyle a nod.
"Well the misses I was referring to was...let's just say it wasn't the take I anticipated."
"So...how much Heyes?" asked Preacher.
Kid noticed Heyes had taken on his "selling' voice as his voice rose. This ought to be good thought Kid as he readjusted his position in his chair making sure he didn't miss a word.
"Now boys you have to remember this was a bank we had never robbed…"
"How much?" Preacher persisted.
"And might have got some information that weren't quite correct…"
"How much?" Preacher asked, his tone implying this was the last time he was going to ask again.
"Well...aah… seventy three dollars." Heyes smiled sheepishly.
"You meant seventy three hundred dollars." Preacher said, hoping for clarification.
"No he really means seventy three dollars," Kid piped up.
Heyes turned and gave Kid an angry look.
"Seventy three dollars?! Seventy three dollars?!" Wheat's eyes narrowed with distrust. "I don't believe you!"
"Well it's the truth." Heyes keeping his tone low and even.
"Seventy three dollars...Well if I did my 'ciphering right that's about ten dollars per man...No...wait...less." Wheat continued his tone getting angrier and angrier. The other men stood around the table speechless. Kyle's mouth hung open so wide, Heyes thought for sure his ever present wad of chew was going to fall from his mouth.
"How do we know you and Kid didn't go off and bury the real haul somewhere after we split up and then come back trying to feed us a bunch of bull about seventy three dollars?" Wheat said.
The other men thought for a moment and started to nod their heads in agreement, before a look from Heyes stopped them.
"If we did that...which we didn't...Don't ya think we'd pick a more believable amount than $73?!"
Heyes turned to quickly look at Kid who sat with his arms folded across his chest. There was no sympathy on his face.
"Don't be putting this on me Wheat," Kid said, not trying to conceal the anger in his voice. "I'm just as mad as you all are...Hell...madder. if you ain't noticed I'm the one that got shot."
"It just weren't one of my better days, boys." Heyes admitted."We ain't never robbed Handford before...So we'll just chalk this up as a learning experience." He added with a forced smile, as he looked eagerly into the other men's faces seeing if they were buying into his excuse.
Unfortunately, they weren't.
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"But 'better' ain't a plan Wheat. We need to know specifics. You know like Heyes does...where…when...what each of us boys needs to do without getting our heads blowed off." Kyle said.
"Well if I got to tell you all the specifics...seems like with all your riding and looting with the Devil's Hole Gang some of the specifics don't need to be spelled out. Seem like it would be second nature."
"Well…" Kyle started, "Me and the other boys feel more comfortable when…"
"Well as leader I'm treating ya all like equals."
Kyle's face screwed up in concentration before asking, "But if we're all equals why do we need a leader?"
"Because you do!" Wheat snapped. "Ain't we the Devil's Hole Gang? Don't know of one gang that don't have a leader. Do you?!"
"Well...no", Kyle admitted.
"And didn't Heyes say I could be leader…"
"Well that ain't exactly what he said."
"Might not have said those exact words but he sure as hell implied it."
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Heyes ran out the door headed for the commotion with Kid hopping behind him, stopping to support himself with a hand on the door frame. Henry and Charlie were locked in a battle, rolling in the dirt as each struggled to free their arms.
"I'M STAYING!" Henry yelled.
"NO, I'M STAYING!" Charlie yelled back.
The other men grabbed each man and pulled them apart.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Heyes yelled.
"I WON FAIR AND SQUARE!" Henry said, pointing a finger at Charlie.
"Won what?"
"Staying." Henry jerked away from the men holding his arm and started dusting the dirt off his clothes. "I mean…" He looked apologetically at Wheat. " Well all of us can't go if Heyes is staying behind with Kid. Someone has to watch point."
"I would have thought the loser would have stayed," mumbled Wheat.
"Yeah! Yeah what Wheat says," Charlie said pointing at Wheat. "What he says."
"Don't work that way, I'm staying." Henry said. "We flipped, I won. Ain't no going back or do over. Thems the rules. Ain't that right Heyes?"
"Well a coin flip is pretty binding in my book." Heyes couldn't help but smile.
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"You sure you're not going?" A mounted Kyle asked, looking anxiously at Heyes as he stood on the front bunkhouse porch.
"No. Not without Kid. Not the way I prefer to do a job."
"But you boys go...and don't worry about my...me."
"Well…" Kyle looked around. All the other gang members suddenly looked uncomfortable.
"Come on...Let's ride!" Wheat said with new found authority and energy. The other gang members reluctantly turned their mounts around and slowly followed after Wheat.
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"Heyes...Listen." Kid grabbed his gun from his holster hanging off the back of his chair.
Heyes jumped up and grabbed his gun, pushing the curtain aside with the barrel of his gun. There were two riders headed towards the bunkhouse. It was Preacher and Lobo.
Heyes turned and met Kid's eyes."Preacher and Lobo. Wonder what they're doing back so soon. That can't be good."
Heyes holstered his gun and walked out onto the porch.
"Boys, you're back mighty early. Trouble?" Preacher looked at Lobo who cleared his throat loudly, "We..we had a little horse trouble. Both threwed a shoe. What are the odds of that happening?" Preacher looked away trying to avoid Heyes' stare.
The corner of Heyes' mouth turned up slightly. "Just bad luck I guess." Heyes said, playing along, "And the other boys…?"
"Well...Matt was complaining about feeling poorly so I 'spect him shortly."
"That leaves only Wheat, Kyle and Charlie"
"I think Charlie said he was feeling poorly too. Must have been something they ate that don't agree with them. Poor Kyle were looking bad the longer we rode so maybe he ate the same thing them boys did….Don't recall. Wheat could be pulling this job all by his lonesome."
"And what job was that?"
"Don't rightly know, Heyes," Preacher answered, looking confused as he turned to Lobo. "Wheat tell you where we was going?"
Lobo shook his head no, "Guess he was keeping it a secret til we got there. But we seemed to be wasting a lot of time riding. I'd swear we was riding in circles." Lobo looked away embarrassed as he had said his thinking out loud.
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It wasn't much longer when Kyle and Charlie returned, with no sign of Wheat.
"Where's Wheat?"
"Don't rightly know." Kyle said.
"Don't rightly care." added Charlie. "You know that man gets damn ugly when things don't go his way. If I had a young'n act like that I'd have cut me the biggest switch and...Sorry Heyes...Ain't right for a grown man to act like that."
Heyes nodded, "Boys are in the bunkhouse...Why don't you go join them?"
Heyes cast a final look, but didn't see any sign of an approaching rider.
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It wasn't until the next morning that Wheat returned. They all raised their heads when he entered the bunkhouse, then quickly dropped them as fast; quietly resuming their eating.
"Know why there weren't no money in the bank Heyes."
Heyes slowly lowered his fork and raised his head. "Why?"
Wheat was going to redeem himself with this tidbit of information and he was going to play it out as long as possible. He suddenly had all the men's attention.
"Well it appears…," Wheat said as he strutted around the bunkhouse, "There was a shipment scheduled." He stopped and made sure all eyes were on him. "And it appears…" Heyes and Kid looked at each other and sighed as they both settled back in their chairs. Wheat did have a knack for drawing a short story into something long and torturous.
Their food was cold by the time Wheat concluded with "And that's why there weren't no money."
Kid leaned close to Heyes and whispered, "Couldn't he have just said the money was delayed cuz the transport wagon broke down?"
"Could have but that ain't Wheat's style." Heyes whispered back.
Heyes cleared his throat, stood up and crossed to Wheat giving an over exuberant slap on the back.
"Good work Wheat." Heyes stopped, cocked his head up and stroked his chin, "You know boys...I think Wheat here just saved us…"
Wheat was beaming.
"Saved us how?" asked Henry.
"You ever hear of a bank getting robbed twice in less than a week?"
All the outlaws shook their heads.
"I'm figuring in a couple days Kid will be ready to ride. Well...we boys...are going to make history. One little ol' bank in Handford, Wyoming and the Devil's Hole Gang. And it's all because of Wheat Carlson here."
Wheat beamed.
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Author's Note: This short story is from an idea in "Everything Else You Can Steal".
Heyes: " I do my best thinking in the middle of the night. I thought of the Handford job in the middle of the night. Remember?"
Kid: "I got shot in the leg on that job and netted us $73. Remember?"
Heyes: "The idea was good."
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