Heyes lay there in agony, as the doctor finished bandaging his side up. His pillow was wet and his damp hair stuck to his head. The doctor looked down at him for a moment. "So you are the famous Hannibal Heyes, I don't like outlaws. Miss Jennifer deserves better than you. You can suffer with the pain; I don't have anything to help…none for the likes of you."
"I may have been an outlaw, but you are supposed to help people, your oath says so." Heyes had his left hand holding his waist, wishing the pain away. The doctor looked into his pain-filled eyes.
"All outlaws are the same, I hate you all. One killed my wife one night while I was out taking care of some poor farmer. He had been a bank robber, and one of his men got shot, came to my place, and killed my wife."
"I am sorry doctor, but I didn't do it. I have never shot anyone, I may have my faults. However, killing is not one of them. If one of my men had done that I would have killed him myself."
The doctor walked out of the room, ignoring Heyes. Heyes rolled over to his left side and curled up. He watched the flame in the lamp on the table. Then he sat up and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He must get to the Kid and now. He pushed up with his good arm and almost passed out. He stood up, his knees like jelly.
"I'm coming Kid." He set his jaw and moved towards the window. The room was spinning but he was not going to give up. The door opened and two men came in and grabbed him. He tried to fight them but was too weak. They dragged him back to the bed, and tried his wrist to the headboard. Then threw the blanket over him and left the room. Heyes tugged on the ropes and cursed under his breath.
Jennifer was in her room, she had been thinking. She went quickly out of her room and down the hall to the room Heyes was in. She opened the door and went in. She saw Heyes lying there, his face pale and drawn.
Jennifer went over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it. She took a cloth from the table, dipped it in the bowl of clean water on the nightstand, and wrung it out. She wiped his forehead with it, and he turned his eyes to her.
"Help me, Jennifer. My friend needs me. Help my friend, and I will do whatever you want." He pleaded with her, and she thought she saw the gleam of tears in his eyes.
"I will help you; I will do whatever I can. I cannot promise you that I can do much. I know someone here that I can trust I will send him for your friend. He will help him."
"That is all I ask."
"Why does he matter so much to you?"
"He's my family, my only family."
"I see, it must be good to have someone who loves you like you do him. My mother used to love me, until she died. You would give up anything for him?"
"Yes, anything, as he would for me."
"I will go see Matt now, get him to go find your friend. I will see you later. Is there anything I can get you?"
"Water." She poured him a glass and held it for him to drink. Then she stood up to go."
When she had gone, Heyes hoped that she was telling the truth and that her friend would go help the Kid. He just prayed it was not too late. He lay there looking up at the ceiling.
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Curry mounted his horse and moved closer to the ranch. He tied his horse a quarter of a mile away from the main part of the ranch. He began to move in, watching for any movements.
Jennifer was headed towards the small house a little ways from the main house. Matt was a cowhand, also the son of the cook and foreman. She moved quietly not wanting to be seen. When a hand grabbed her and pulled her into the trees, a hand covered her mouth. He dragged her a short distance and then turned her to face him.
"You yell and you are dead. Where is my friend?" She looked up at the handsome blond man, and felt a shiver of fright at the danger that seemed a big part of him.
"I won't yell, you are Kid Curry aren't you?" Hannibal is worried about you." Curry still had his hand on her upper arm, and slightly shook her.
"Where is he? Why did your men grab him? Is he alive, he had better be." Jennifer flinched at the tone in his voice.
"He is alive; he's in the main house. My father took him."
"Where in the main house?"
"Second floor, back of the house, first window on the left. There is a light on there. Hannibal is in bad shape, doctor just fixed him up, but he wasn't nice to him, and gave him nothing for the pain."
"You are going to help me get him out of here. I want to know if you have guards at night, who is up in the main house, I want my friend's horse brought around to a safe place where no one will see it."
"I will help you, not because you make me. Because I want too. I made a terrible mistake, which got him hurt. I am sorry for that. I will have my friend bring the horse around back by the old well and wait, and I will help you get Hannibal out of the house, he is alone now. Go up the trellis in the back. I will meet you there in 10 minutes."
"How do I know I can trust you?"
"I give you my word, and I have to make it up to Hannibal." He could feel that she was telling the truth and let her go. He moved silently around to the back of the house and climbed the trellis.
The window sliding open made Heyes look over, and he saw his cousin climbing into the room. The kids face lit up when he saw Heyes. He moved quietly over to the door and listened and when he heard nothing he moved to the bed.
"Heyes!" he whispered. "I thought you were dead."
"I thought you were dead. Good to see you Kid."
Curry took out his knife and began to cut the ropes off Heyes wrist. He saw how bad off the other man was. He wondered if he could even stand, much less climb down a trellis. He leaned over, put a hand to Heyes forehead, and felt the raging fever there, and the glassy eyed look.
"Oh Heyes, what have they done to you?" He knew he had to get his cousin to some help and a place to rest far from there. "Why did they capture you, and not me?"
Heyes tried to smile. "Because the old man here wants me to marry his daughter, Jennifer. Seems I rescued her from some bad men once. Wedding in the morning, want to come?"
"No, I think we will both skip it. When you decide to get married I will be there." He lifted his cousin up to a sitting position. Heyes groaned, and bit his lower lip. Curry was worried, and he knew he could not carry the other man down the trellis on his back.
The door opened and Curry had his gun out and pointed when it opened enough for him to see it was Jennifer. She came over after shutting the door. She held out a small bottle to Curry, and some more bandages.
"Something for the pain. What can I do to help, the horse is out back." She moved over and the kid gently pulled Heyes legs over the side and motioned for her to take his other arm. Together they pulled him to his feet. His legs began to buckle and he could not stand. Curry wrapped his arms around his waist, and Heyes looked up at him.
"Floor isn't level, that's all."
"Sure Heyes."
"He can't go out the window. We will go out the back way. No one is up but Father he is in his office. Back stairs and out the back." Curry turned Heyes and picked him up in his arms, as he could not throw him over his shoulder because of his wound. Jennifer went out the door, and led Curry down the hall and down the back staircase. It was quiet, and only a small lamp gave off any light in the back hall. She opened the back door and held it for Curry to go through, then led him over to where the horse was waiting. Matt was waiting there.
Matt helped Curry get Heyes on the horse, and Curry quickly swung up behind him, pulling him up against him. He glanced down at Jennifer.
"Thank you Jennifer, for what you did for my cousin."
"You are welcome; he is a very special man. Tell him I am sorry, and maybe one day we will meet again in a nice way." She turned and went back inside as Curry walked the horse away.
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Curry rode for the rest of the night and into the next morning. He stopped when he found another of the outlaw's stop-overs. It was secure, and hard to track anyone into those hills, and he knew there was a cabin there.
About two miles and the cabin came into view. Curry rode up to it, and dismounted, and pulled Heyes off and carried him to the cabin. He kicked open the door, went to one of the three bunks in the room. He laid Heyes down, then moved around getting a fire started in the fireplace, and to get some water from the inside pump.
Sitting down beside Heyes he unwrapped the dark haired mans wound and saw how much it had bleed; he cleaned it best he could, and rewrapped it. Then he saw Heyes Eyes open, and he took out the spoon and putting some laudanum in it, gave it to Heyes. He began to undress his cousin, down to his underwear…then using cool water tried to bring his fever down a little. He would fix some food later.
Time past quickly and it was lunchtime before Curry got up and wearily went to the fireplace took the coffee pot and cleaned and filled it with clean water set it to boil. He added some coffee to it.
There were some canned goods in the cabin, plus the food they had in their saddlebags. At least they would not starve. He needed to get Heyes to eat, and drink something.