Three hours later, the house was finally silent. No light crept in underneath the door leading out into the hallway. With unspoken agreement, the pair decided the time had finally come for them to move. Heyes extracted the hairpin from within his waistband where he had earlier tucked it away for safe keeping. With only the milky moonlight seeping in through the curtained window to aid him, he set to work on the handcuffs. Within seconds both he and Curry were free.
Heyes headed towards the window and was just about to raise the glass so they could shimmy down the side of the house and make their escape when he noticed Kid was waiting by the door to the hallway. "Hey, whaddaya waiting for? Let's go."
"Uh, uh," Kid answered stubbornly. "Come open this door. I wanna get my gun. It'll only take a second."
"What!" Heyes hissed loudly. "You can get another gun later. Let's just get out of here," he insisted, gesturing towards the window.
"Nosir! Not this time! I'm tired of having my gun taken from me. You know how hard it is to find a good gun. I aim to keep this one. Besides…I just cleaned it. Now git over here and unlock this door."
"Kid—"
"Uh, uh."
Heyes glared at his friend for a split second. Then, in half-light, through silent encouragement, he tried once more to convince him to use the window. Kid refused to be swayed, however, and stood with his arms folded across his chest, leaning against the door, unmoved and unmoving.
With a sigh that originated deep in his chest, Heyes walked over to where Kid stood near the door, muttering irritably under his breath. Kid couldn't make out any of the words but the meaning was clear. Didn't matter none to him though…he planned to get his gun.
With a magician's touch, Heyes manipulated the simple lock. Within seconds, he heard the tell-tale click that let him know he had worked his own brand of magic. He smiled in spite of himself, enjoying the thrill he got in opening a lock, any kind of lock.
With a flourish, he stood back from the door so that Kid could do the honors of opening it. Kid smiled and tipped his hat in recognition of Heyes' finesse with the hairpin. Then, gently and carefully, he turned the round knob listening for any sounds coming from the house. When he heard none, he opened the door just wide enough for the two of them to squeeze through. Once in the hallway, they listened again. The house was silent.
As quiet as two men in cowboy boots can be, they tiptoed down the stairs. With Heyes watching his back, Kid, in the semi-darkness, found the closet where Fletcher had stored their guns. Hurriedly, they buckled the belts around their hips, tied the holsters across their thighs and straightened up.
"Satisfied now?"
"Yep," Kid grinned, relishing the weighty feel of his gun resting against his leg.
"Let's go then."
"No argument from me."
Only one door remained between them and freedom and they didn't waste any more time in using it. They left the boarding house for what they hoped would be the final time, elated that they had managed to out-wit Winford Fletcher again. As Heyes and Curry closed the door behind them, two shadowy figures stepped into the foyer.
"Well, Molly was right. The road is definitely out." Heyes and Curry sat, leaning forward in their saddles, forearms crossed over saddle horns, looking out across the dark water swirling muddily in their path.
"Whaddaya think we ought to do, Heyes? Go try the mining trail into the hills?"
"No, I don't think so, Kid. Not at night. Wouldn't be safe."
"How 'bout we follow the river downstream. The water might be shallower there. At least shallow enough so we could cross."
"I think that's a good idea. One thing's for sure, we can't wait around here much longer. Just be careful, wouldn't want you ending up in the river again."
"You just worry about yourself. I plan to stay nice and dry."
Heyes and Curry urged their horses on, cautiously avoiding the slippery and unstable banks of the once placid, now agitated river. They picked their way deliberately, using the light from the almost-full moon as their guide. With the rain finished, the night was calm and fresh. The only sounds that disturbed the air were the rhythms of their own hoof beats thudding softly on the damp earth and the noises of night creatures.
About a quarter mile downstream, Kid drew his horse up and stopped suddenly. Instinctively, his right hand found the butt of his gun and rested there. Heyes caught the motion through the corner of his eye and turned to look at his partner quizzically. "What is it, Kid?"
"Did you hear that?"
"What?"
Both men stood perfectly still, heads cocked slightly Finally, Heyes shrugged and said, "I don't hear anything."
Kid frowned. "Yeah, I don't hear it now either but I would'a sworn I heard…" his words trailed off without finishing his thought.
"Maybe we should check it out? You think someone is following us?"
"I don't rightly know. Could be I'm just jumpy. Maybe it was just—"
A scream cut through Kid's words. Both men tensed visibly, their bodies frozen into place for the moment. Before they could react further, they heard another scream followed by a shout, "Miranda!"
Heyes groaned, "Oh, no!" The two men wheeled their mounts around and took off in the direction where the screams came from, no longer mindful of the dangerous ground beneath them. A few hundred yards upstream, they could see Molly, silhouetted in silvery moonlight lying prone on the edge of the muddy banks. She was reaching into the swirling waters. At first glance, she seemed to be reaching for a branch that was stuck out just beyond her reach. As Heyes got closer, he realized that she did in fact have the branch clutched in her hand. The other end of the branch was in the tenuous grasp of her younger sister who was desperately trying to hold on against the swift currents.
He and Curry jumped down from their horses and ran the few feet remaining between them and the girls. "Hold on, Miran—" At that instant, Miranda screamed again as she lost her grip on the slick branch. The currents started carrying her downstream, slowly at first but then picking up speed as she went.
Molly cried out, her voice trailing off in a choked sob. She struggled to her knees, her riding clothes heavy with muddy earth. "Help us!"
She needn't have said anything, however, because Heyes and Curry were already running hell-bent to save the young woman. Heyes stopped just long enough to retrieve a length of rope from his saddle. By the time he caught up with Kid, his partner had managed to overtake Miranda's progress downstream.
As luck would have it, a thick tree trunk stretched out from the bank across the swollen river. The tree had more than likely stood proudly on the edge of the river until the rising waters had washed away its stability, forcing it to topple over. Now it acted as a bridge at least a few hundred feet into the river's path. Heyes watched as Kid shimmied out onto its slippery surface. Kid moved cautiously but quickly, positioning himself finally in the spot where he guessed Miranda would pass. Lying on his belly, he could almost reach the water below him. He hoped that Miranda would have enough strength to reach for him and that he would be able to hold onto her well enough to pull her from the water. Otherwise, she was going to be dragged further downstream.
"Miranda!" he yelled as she came closer. "Grab my hand!"
The girl was coming fast, the current moving her quickly now. There would only be a split second where he would be able to grab her. He needed to make that second count. "Here I am, Miranda. Get ready!"
Kid didn't take his eyes off the girl, bobbing closer every second. He had judged well and it seemed like she would pass directly underneath him. "Come on, Miranda," he urged. The girl looked exhausted from her watery struggle and he prayed silently once again that she would have the strength to reach for him.
"Come on, Miranda!" he said in a more commanding voice. "Reach for me!"
He could see Miranda's eyes shining up at him. He could see the fear and fatigue in her eyes. At the sound of his voice, the fear faded, replaced by a look of grim determination. She raised her arms up out of the water and reached for his. Kid reached back. Their hands met but the current was strong. It carried Miranda underneath the log where Curry was perched. He lost his grip on her left hand but managed to maintain a hold on the fingers of her right hand. The current threatened to drag her further under the log and out of his grasp entirely.
He heard Heyes' voice calling from the bank, "Hold on, Kid. Just a second longer." Heyes was busy fashioning a lasso from the rope. With a flourish, he twirled the circle of rope over his head a few times, calculating his throw. Smoothly, the rope sailed out over the water, landing inches from Miranda's free left hand.
Kid saw the rope land before Miranda became aware of it. She was gasping for breath and trying desperately not to lose her grip on Kid's hand. "Grab the rope, Miranda. Joshua will pull you in."
"I can't," she cried, choking on the muddy water. The fear had returned to her face and Kid could tell she was too afraid of losing her grasp on him to reach for the rope.
"Yes, you can! Grab it! I can't hold onto you much longer. You have to reach the rope. Now!" Her fingers slipped another fraction of an inch away from his. "Hurry, Miranda!"
Finally realizing it was her only hope, Miranda reached for the rope. For a terrifying second, she felt that she wouldn't be able to reach it but a fortuitous current steered it a few inches closer. She grabbed the loop of rope with her left hand and held onto it for dear life. The rope was sodden and slippery and threatened to slide away from her fingers.
"Loop it around your arm, Miranda. Don't let go."
She struggled to do as Kid demanded. Once she had a firm hold on the rope, Heyes started to pull her towards him where he stood on the bank. With a few powerful strokes, he dragged her back to the river's edge. With Kid's help, he pulled a cold and drenched Miranda from the river into the terrified arms of her older sister. Both girls sank sobbing onto the river bank as the men looked helplessly on.
Heyes wanted to grab Molly by the shoulders and demand to know what she and her sister were doing following them, but he didn't have the heart to do it just then. Instead, he asked Kid to stay with them while he walked back to where they had left their horses. When he returned, a few minutes later, he had all four horses in tow.
Heyes grabbed his and Kid's bed rolls from behind their saddles, unrolled them and wrapped the blankets around the girls' shoulders. "Feeling better?" he asked, gently.
Miranda and Molly still clung to each other but they had both stopped crying. Miranda looked exhausted by her ordeal in the river; Molly just looked frightened. It was hard to say though if she was more afraid by what had just happened or by the look on Heyes' face. Unable to find their voices, both girls just nodded silently to his question.
"Good. Then you'll be able to explain what the devil you're doing out here." His voice was no longer gentle; it had taken on a harder, angry edge, one that had turned strong men's blood to ice water on numerous prior occasions.
Miranda started to cry again, choking back little strangled sobs. Molly held her more tightly and tried to look defiant in the face of Heyes' anger but after mere seconds her resolve collapsed under the weight of his gaze. In a small, childish voice she said, "We just wanted to see where you were going. We wanted to come with you." She grimaced, realizing how foolish her words sounded.
"You wanted to come with us!" Heyes shouted in disbelief. "Have you lost your minds? Do you have any idea what—"
"Well, we didn't want to stay with you, if that's what you mean. We—I—just thought it would be fun to---"
"Fun? Fun? You call this fun?"
"Of course not, but—"
Heyes held his hand up to silence Molly. Irritated, he turned away and paced back and forth a few times, rubbing his face vigorously. Suddenly, he whirled back to face Molly, a new question rattling through his mind, needing an answer. "How did you know we were going to be leaving tonight? Look at you…you're wearing riding clothes. You knew we were going to escape! How?"
A smile played at the corners of Molly's mouth. She made a conscious effort to conceal it though, knowing that Heyes would not be as amused as she was by her answer still forthcoming. "I knew from the second you stole my hairpin that you were going to be escaping tonight." Just a hint of smugness colored her answer.
Heyes' eyes widened in amazed disbelief. Behind him, he could hear Kid groan. 'Well, I'm never gonna hear the end of this,' he thought. "You knew?" He glanced sheepishly at Kid who was walking downstream away from them. Heyes swore he heard him chuckle softly as he walked away, shaking his head.
"Course I knew. I mean…the kiss definitely distracted me for a minute but when my hair started falling down as soon as I left your room, well, it don't take a genius to figure out what happened."
"So you just waited for us to break out? Why didn't you tell your pa?"
"What makes you think we didn't?"
"He's not here, is he? If you'da told him, he'd be the one chasing us down tonight, not you two."
"Well, that's where you've miscalculated, Mr. Heyes." Another voice, this one masculine and familiar split the inky darkness. The moon that had been shining brightly earlier had recently taken on a more subdued glow, courtesy of clouds building up in the midnight sky. "Don't draw your gun," the voice warned as Heyes reached for his holster. "I've got you covered and I'd hate to see anything happen before we get a chance to talk."
"Mr. Howard. I can't say that it's nice to see you." Heyes looked around, noticing that Kid had not returned from his stroll. His partner was no where in sight. Heyes eased his body sideways, positioning himself behind the spot where the two Howard daughters still sat huddled beneath blankets on the ground. He hated to do it, but if Ott had an inclination to shot him, he'd at least have to think twice before doing it with his daughters in the line of fire.
"Just stay calm, Mr. Heyes."
Heyes smiled. "Ott, if you knew anything about me, you'd know that I always stay calm…always." There was something about Heyes' smile that made Ott's hair stand up on the back of his neck. He was calm alright, but it was a dangerous calm.
"Daddy? How did you find us?"
"Your Aunt Thelma heard something after she went to bed. She asked me to check it out. I found our friends here missing from their room. When I saw you girls were gone too…well, that about scared me half to death." To Heyes, he said, "How dare you take these two young girls with you on your dirty business, Mr. Heyes! Even if you are outlaws, I would have given you more credit for good sense than that."
"Now, listen—"
"They aren't to blame, daddy. We followed them. They didn't know. It wasn't until Molly fell into the river that—"
"What! Molly fell in the river?" Ott's whole body seemed to tremble with alarm. He lowered his gun and moved to crouch near his daughters. "Are you ok?"
"She's ok, daddy. When she fell in, I tried to help her but I couldn't hold on to her. Mr. Curry and Mr. Heyes saved her." Ott hugged his daughters, forgetting the two wanted men for the time being.
Heyes glanced over his shoulder just in time to see Kid come into sight. He was holding his gun. In a calm, even voice he said, "Mr. Howard, I'd like you to move away from your daughters if you don't mind. I think we got some things to settle and we don't want them caught in the middle of men's affairs, do we? Go stand over there."
Ott stared down the barrel of Kid's six-shooter. Slowly he rose to his feet and moved away from Molly and Miranda. "Joshua, why don't you go get Ott's gun?"
"My pleasure, Thaddeus."
"Now we don't intend to let you take us prisoner again, Ott. So what do you think we ought to do with you?"
"Listen, Jones…or Curry, or whoever you are. I came out here to get my daughters back As for you two, well I wasn't sure what I was going to do about you."
"Why's that?"
"Well, as you know, this whole thing was that crazy Fletcher's idea. And when I went to find him tonight to have him help me find Molly and Miranda…well, let's just say he was in no condition to even sit a horse, let alone help me chase you all down."
"Drunk?"
"Dead drunk. So I'd already been rethinking my decision to fall in with him, you might say. And now—after finding out what you did for Miranda…well, it just wouldn't feel right for me to turn you over to the law. Especially since I'm not convinced that Winnie has the right men. Heck, I could end up being as big a laughing stock as he is. I gotta live in this town, ya know."
"Are you saying you don't intend to take us back to town? How do we know we can trust you?"
"You have my word as a gentleman. And my gratitude for what you did for my daughters." Ott's eyes never wavered from Kid's. He looked like a man who was telling the truth.
Heyes broke in, "So what do we do from here?"
"Well, how 'bout I take my girls back to town for some dry clothes and you two fellas keep headin' the way you were headin' before all the excitement?"
Heyes smiled broadly. This time Ott didn't feel prickly fingers of fear march down his neck, for which he was much relieved. He smiled back.
"What about the sheriff? What'll you tell him?"
"I won't tell him anything. I'll let Winnie do all the talking…until he talks himself into a corner he can't get out of, hopefully."
"Sounds like a good plan. I wonder if you would consider taking a message back to old Winford for us? I wrote this up while you and Thaddeus were talking just now." He handed Ott a sheet of paper, folded twice to form a small rectangle. "Maybe you could just leave it where he'll find it…maybe in our room?"
"My pleasure, Mr. Smith."
The men shook hands and then helped Molly and Miranda first to their feet and then onto their horses. "Keep the blankets," Heyes said kindly. "It's awful chilly out here tonight. Don't want the two of you catching cold."
Heyes and Curry rode through the night, putting plenty of miles between themselves and Winford Fletcher, the town drunk. Somewhere in the middle of the night, they had found a spot in the river shallow enough for them to cross over onto the other side. Once they did, it felt like a giant weight had been lifted off their shoulders.
Once morning came, they felt safe enough to finally stop and rest in the shade of a large willow tree. "How about we sleep for a while, Kid? I'm beat."
"We don't have any blankets," Kid answered, laughing.
"Oh, right…I forgot about that. Well, that's ok. We'll get some new ones in the next town, alright?"
"Fine. I'm so tired I could sleep on a pile of rocks." Kid lay down and pulled his hat down low over his eyes. He lay still for a few minutes before suddenly pushing his hat back up and looking over at his partner, already drifting off to sleep.
"Heyes?"
"Ummmm?"
"Heyes, what did you write in that note?"
"Hm? What note?"
"The note. The one you gave Ott to give to Fletcher. What did it say?"
Heyes sighed sleepily and rolled over, turning his back to Kid. "Nothing, Kid," he mumbled. "I just gave him a little friendly advice is all. Go to sleep, will ya?"
Too tired to press him any more, Kid did just that.
Sheriff Black knocked on the door at the home of Thelma Campbell. At his shoulder, Winford Fletcher wavered unsteadily on his feet. He reeked of old whiskey and stale barroom tobacco. The sheriff glanced distastefully at his companion and moved as far away as possible on the porch step.
Ott Howard opened the door. He looked quizzically at the men standing on his stoop. "Can I help you?"
"Mr. Howard? Mr. Fletcher here tells me that you might have a couple of wanted men locked up here in your home?"
Ott looked confused, glancing from one man to the other. "I'm sorry?"
The sheriff opened his mouth to speak but before he could, Fletcher interrupted, talking in a loud, shrill, albeit slightly slurred voice. "Let us in, Ott. I want that reward on Heyes and Curry as soon as possible!"
"Heyes and Curry? What on earth are you going on about, Winnie?" He rolled his eyes in disgust and spoke to the sheriff, "I have no idea what this man is going on about. There are no outlaws here. Never have been. My sister runs a respectable boarding house."
Sheriff Black looked suspiciously at Fletcher. When he received the telegraph from Winford Fletcher, previously a resident of his town and a respected member of the community, he dropped everything he was doing back home and rushed here, expecting to find that Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry had been apprehended. Instead, he had found this old fool, drunker than a skunk at ten o'clock in the morning. He had been thinking he should have turned around and rode out of town as soon as he saw Fletcher, now he was convinced of it.
"Sorry to have bothered you, Mr. Howard. There's obviously been a mistake. We'll just be on our---"
"Mistake! There hasn't been a mistake. Heyes and Curry are upstairs, handcuffed to a bed." Fletcher pushed his way into the house and barged up the stairs.
Ott protested, "Now see here, man. You can't just go barreling into our home like this!" His apparent indignation was masked by a wicked smile, a smile that neither Black or Fletcher saw, seeing as how both men preceded him up the stairs, Fletcher adamantly and Black apologetically.
At the head of the stairs, Fletcher stopped in front of the room that had, up until the previous night, held Heyes and Curry. To the sheriff, he said, loudly and proudly, as he swung the door wide with a flourish and stepped back for the sheriff to go in first, "Look for yourself, Sheriff!"
Sheriff Black looked into the room, empty except for its spare furniture. "Uh, huh." He sighed deeply and with a final look of disgust at Fletcher, turned to Mr. Howard. "Sorry to have disturbed you. If you don't mind, I'll just be on my way. I have a lot of important matters waiting for me back in Silver Springs."
"What?" Fletcher peered over the sheriff's shoulder, getting his first sight of the room beyond since yesterday afternoon. He pushed past the other man, moving to stand in the center of the room where he made a slow circle, his eyes as big as saucers, looking frantically for any sign of the two men who he had helped imprison here. "Sheriff, they were here yesterday, I swear." He turned accusingly to Ott, "What did you do with them? Where are they?"
"Who? I'm telling you there is no one here. Never has been since the last time we rented out this room. Sheriff, I'll walk you out. Fletcher, I suggest you leave too."
Fletcher spluttered and muttered a few words under his breath, still searching the room for signs of Heyes and Curry as the other two men left the room and headed down the stairs. The sheriff was still apologizing profusely for bothering Ott at home as the door shut behind him on his way back to Silver Springs.
As for Fletcher, he finally found what he was looking for. A piece of paper peeked out from beneath the covers atop the pillow where Joshua Smith aka Hannibal Heyes had slept. Frantically, he unfolded it and read:
Winnie,
I told you to clean up your act. You should have listened. If you had, maybe you wouldn't be in this mess. You have no one to blame but yourself.
Signed,
Your friend,
HH
Fletcher stared at the note, reading it over and over. In outrage, he tore the note into a hundred small pieces before realizing he had destroyed the only evidence he would ever have that he was telling the truth. A strangled shriek rose in his throat as he stood paralyzed in the center of the room.
Downstairs, Ott listened with satisfaction. 'All's well that end's well,' he thought happily, smiling at his daughters.