Despite the Sheriff's protests, Hannibal Heyes had moved his cot across his cell and pushed it up against the bars that separated him from his partner's cell. He watched Kid, perhaps sleeping, but more likely still unconscious. Kid's upper left arm was bound tightly with bandages against his torso, minimizing movement of the upper arm. Fresh blood had made it's way through the layers of gauze, but Heyes had watched it carefully and had not seen any expansion of the blood stain in the past couple of hours. Kid's chest rose and fell in a steady, shallow manner, interrupted only by an occasional moist cough.
"Come on, Kid. You gotta wake up," Heyes said just loud enough for himself to hear.
Kid had been unconscious since yesterday afternoon and now the morning sun indicated it would soon be noon.
Heyes glanced at the portly sheriff who sat hunched over his desk, giving little thought or concern to his two notorious prisoners.
A fight had broken out in the saloon the night before. No one seemed to know what started the fight, but it spread like wildfire and Heyes and Curry had tried to discreetly inch their way to the doors to extract themselves from the brawl. But Heyes was struck by a misguided upper left cut that sent him sprawling to the floor and as Kid bent down to help him, his left upper arm was slashed by the shards of a broken whiskey bottle. Kid grabbed at this arm and plopped to his butt on the floor beside his partner.
"Damn it, Heyes," he had snarled and instantly the room fell silent, followed quickly by the click of fifty guns now cocked and pointed directly at the two men on the floor.
"See, I told you that was Kid Curry," someone shouted excitedly.
"One of you fellows go get the Sheriff," the bartender had shouted.
Heyes and Curry glowered at each other and sighed heavily before Heyes finally found his silver tongue.
Heyes raised his hands in the air. "Mr. Jones and I are going to stand up, now. That's all we're doing, so don't be too quick to use those guns."
"Hand your own guns over to the first person on your right," someone shouted.
Heyes took his gun from his holster and handed it to the nearest man on his right. Kid then pulled his gun from it's holster and looked questioningly at Heyes who was standing directly to Kid's right. Heyes shook his head.
"Now's not the time to be funny," Heyes said under his breath.
Kid handed the butt end of the gun to the person to Heyes' right.
"Now I heard who you folks think we are, but I can tell you without a doubt that you are mistaken. My name is Joshua and my friend's name is Thaddeus," Heyes began, purposely omitting the obviously alias last names.
Thaddeus here has been mistaken for the outlaw... Oh, what's his name?" Heyes asked turning to his partner.
"Kid Curry," Kid replied sheepishly. "He's been mistaken for him several times. Now I don't know what this Curry fellow looks like, but I can assure you, Thaddeus ain't Kid Curry. The fact of the matter is, we ain't even from Wyoming. We're from Arizona. That's right, and we're headed back there right now."
"Not anymore you ain't... Heyes," someone shouted from the back of the room.
Heyes looked at Kid, still clutching his bleeding arm. "I think he's right, Joshua," Kid said quietly.
"Now truthfully gentlemen, do you really think Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes would just walk into a saloon in the middle of Wyoming without some sort of disguise? Why, half the people of Wyoming would recognize them."
"Half the people in this saloon just did!"
"Right, again," Kid whispered under his breath.
The bat wing doors swung open and the Sheriff and two of his deputies walked in, pushing their way through the crowd.
"Now what's going on here and where are these two outlaws you're claiming to have?" Sheriff Trumble shouted above the noise of the crowd.
Heyes and Curry each raised a timid arm into the air.
Sheriff Trumble eyed them both carefully. They didn't look like dangerous outlaws to him.
"So which one's Heyes and which one's Curry?"
"That's just it, Sheriff, my friend and me here ain't Heyes and Curry," Heyes piped up.
"Then who are you?"
Heyes sighed before speaking, knowing how unconvincing the two alias names were. "My name is Joshua Smith and my friend here is Thaddeus Jones. We're partners. We own a ranch in Arizona, the S & J Ranch in Yuma?
"Never heard of it... How did you get your arm hurt, son?"
"Oh, ah...broken bottle," Kid stuttered.
"We should probably get that looked at. Seems to be bleeding more than it should."
"Yes, Sir," Kid replied.
The Sheriff was right about the bleeding and Kid was suddenly feeling dizzy. He reached for Heyes' arm, but the sudden movement startled the man behind him who instinctively hit Kid over the head with the butt of his gun. Kid's head jerked and then stunned, glassy eyes looked at his partner just before he slumped to a heap on the floor.
"Why did you go and to that, Jenkings?" the Sheriff shouted as Heyes dropped down beside Kid to try to wake him.
"Somebody got some water?" Heyes shouted and soon a glass of water was being passed through the crowd to Heyes who slapped Kid's cheek in one final attempt to wake him. When that failed, Heyes winced and poured the water over kid's face.
Still no response from Kid. Heyes just rolled his eyes.
"Well handcuff the one who's awake and we'll carry the other one over to the jail," Sheriff Trumble ordered. "We'll get this figured out once you two are behind bars and your friend here has been seen by the doctor."
Heyes stood slowly, put his hands behind his back, and sighed heavily.
Now, nearing noon the next day, Kid had still not awakened, and the Sheriff had still not determined their identities, although he was studying two wanted posters very carefully and was looking over at the cells to do a visual comparison to the printed descriptions.
"We have a Sheriff friend in Porterville, Lom Trevers is his name. He can tell you we are in fact Smith and Jones," Heyes called to the disinterested Sheriff.
"Where's this Sheriff from?" Jenkins asked.
"Porterville, Sheriff Lom Trevers," Heyes repeated.
"I'll send him a telegram this afternoon."
"Take your time," Heyes mumbled.
"What?"
"I said I'm concerned about Mr. Jones. He still ain't woke up and there's new blood on that bandage. I think the doctor ought to take another look at him."
"Uh-uh."
Heyes sighed and rolled over on to his back on the cot and clasped his hands behind his head. He turned his head slightly to maintain his watch on his partner.
Kid's bare feet hung slightly off the edge of the bed and Heyes caught the quick and sudden movement of one foot jerk. Heyes glanced up at Kid's face but still saw no indication of him waking. Then the foot jerked a second time, followed by a low moan.
"Ki...Thaddeus?" Heyes called to his partner.
Another low moan followed and soon eyelids began to flutter. The lower end of Kid's left arm tried to raise to his head but was stopped by the bandages that limited the movement of the arm. Slowly the right arm raised to the back of his head and the moan grew louder.
"Sheriff, I think he's coming to. Maybe now's a good time for the doctor?"
Sheriff Jenkins pulled himself from his chair and walked toward the door. "I'll get him, now that he has something to examine."
"Kid, you awake?" Heyes prodded as soon as the Sheriff was gone. "Come on, Kid wake up...Wake up, Kid."
"Heyes?" Kid said, still groggy and obviously in some discomfort. "What happened?"
"We're in jail, that's what happened. The Sheriff went for the doctor. Don't be using our real names when the doctor examines you, understand?"
"Uh-uh." Kid replied. "Why are we in jail?"
"Somebody recognized us. I'm still trying to convince the sheriff otherwise."
"Oh, is it working?"
"Not so far. How you feeling?"
"My head hurts, bad."
"How about your arm?"
"Ah, no, not so much. Just my head."
"You got gun-butted."
"Ah, that explains it. Heyes?"
"Yeah?"
"You gonna be able to get us out of here?"
"I'm gonna keep trying, Kid."
"Kay."
Kid drifted back to sleep but woke with the sound of the cell door opening when the doctor came in.
The doctor sat on the edge of the cot and began snipping away at the bandages. Kid closed tired eyes.
"You know your name, son?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"What?"
"Your name, what is it?"
"Thaddeus... Jones."
"Where you from?"
"Around."
"Around where?"
"ah... a ranch... S & J, I think."
"And where's that?"
"Ah... I don't remember."
"What's your friend's name?"
"My friend?"
The fellow in the next cell, son."
"Oh."
"What's his name?"
"Joshua... Smith."
"How's your head feel?"
"Bad... It hurts bad."
"I'll leave some pain powders with the Sheriff."
"He need em, too?"
The doctor smiled. "No son, they're for you. He'll mix em up in some water for you."
"Kay."
The doctor finished applying a new bandage to Kid's arm. "The stitches are holding and the wound looks good," the doctor said more to Heyes than to Kid. "I'm just bandaging the arm so you'll have a little more freedom of movement with it."
" 'Preciate that,"
"I want you to open your eyes for me son."
"You gonna hold up fingers?"
The doctor smiled again. "Been through this before have you?"
"Uh-uh."
"So, how many fingers?"
Kid squinted to focus. "Um, three."
"That's good, son."
"He gonna be alright?" Heyes asked
"It'll take a day or two for the headache to go away, but he'll be fine."
Heyes smiled. "Thank you, doctor," Heyes said as the doctor headed back to his office.
"I sent that telegram off to Porterville. I'll let you know when I hear back," Sheriff Trumble said as he got up from his desk, picked up two wanted posters, and walked over to the cells. "You two do bear a resemblance to these descriptions, though."
"Can I look at em, Sheriff?" Heyes asked, reaching his hand through the bars.
Sheriff Trumble handed Heyes the two posters.
"The descriptions on these posters fit half the men in this town," Heyes said. "Height, weight, hair and eye color, build, and that's it. Sheriff, we're not Heyes and Curry. You'll see that when you hear back from Sheriff Trevers."
"You're forgetting folks in the saloon that say they seen you before and know you're Heyes and Curry. Besides, I can't just go on a telegram from a Sheriff on the other side of the territory who ain't laid eyes on the two fellas in my jail."
"Sheriff, do you have any idea how frustrating this is for my partner and me?"
"You're partner don't look too frustrated," Sheriff Trumble said pointing at the once again sleeping blonde in the next cell."
"Well he would be frustrated if he was awake!... Now we got a ranch to run in Arizona and we need to get back to it."
"I'm awake now," Kid grumbled. "Can't sleep with all your jabbering."
"Now you both seem like nice fellows and I wish I could just unlock them doors and let you walk out of here, but I can't, and there's no use getting all riled up about. Take a lesson from your partner there, Mr. Smith. We just gotta wait until all the wrinkles get ironed out."
Heyes handed the wanted posters back to the Sheriff and sat down heavily on his cot. He glanced over at Kid who lay on his back with his eyes closed.
"I don't know how you can just lay there and do nothing," Heyes grumbled.
"Might have something to do with getting hit over the head, Joshua," Kid replied quietly.
"You need some of them pain powders?" the Sheriff asked Kid.
"Might be helpful," Kid replied without moving or opening his eyes.
The Sheriff mixed some of the powders in a glass of water and unlocked the cell door to carry it in to Kid.
As Kid pulled himself up and moved his legs off the bed to take the glass of diluted medication, Heyes tried hard to get Kid's attention. He finally was able to catch Kid's eye as Kid was raising the glass to his mouth. Heyes repeatedly jerked his head in the direction of Kid's cell door that the Sheriff had left open. Kid gave Heyes a quick, subtle nod.
Suddenly Kid lurched forward and grabbed at his throat with both hands while coughing, seemingly uncontrollably. The Sheriff bent down to slap Kid on the back.
"You choking, son?" the Sheriff asked, leaning in toward the still coughing Kid.
In an instant, Kid had relieved the Sheriff of his gun and had it pointed directly at him.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sheriff Trumble asked with a bit of surprise in his voice and a startled look on his face.
"Leaving," Kid replied. "Now, I see you got the keys clipped to your belt loop. Pull em off and tossed em over there to my friend. Now!" Kid said with a cold look of steel in his eyes.
The Sheriff did as he was told and Heyes quickly unlocked his cell and stepped outside. He headed straight for the Sheriff's desk and retrieved both his and Kid's guns and holsters.
"Now, move to the back of the cell, Sheriff," Kid told him, still holding the Sheriff's gun pointed at him.
"This ain't going to look good on your records, boys," the Sheriff said as Kid exited the cell and locked the door.
"He's got a point," Kid said to his partner.
"You stay here and I'll go get our horses and bring em up here," Heyes said and Kid nodded.
"I'm locking the door behind you. Tap on the window when your back and ready."
Heyes darted out the door and took the alleys to the livery stable where he collected and saddled their horses and paid the owner.
Climbing on his sorrel, and pulling Kid's Chestnut along behind him, Heyes again took the alleys back to the jail and tapped on the window.
"Well, now, Sheriff, I think we'll be parting company. You run a fine jail and we thank you for your comforts," Kid said and slipped the Sheriff's gun in his desk drawer before heading out the door and joining his partner.
"Kid, them walls must be paper thin. I just heard everything you just said to him, thanking him for the comforts and running a fine jail," Heyes whispered in a low voice to his partner.
"Where to?" Kid whispered as he mounted his horse.
"Say it louder," Heyes whispered.
"What?"
"Say 'where to' louder.
Kid finally caught on to what Heyes was doing.
"Where to?" Kid asked an a loud, clear voice.
"Arizona, of course. We've got to get back to that ranch," Heyes bellowed.
They both then spurred their horses and raced out of town.
"Where are we really going?" Kid asked a mile or two out of town.
Heyes smiled. "Any where but Arizona Kid. That's where he'll be leading the posse just as soon as someone discovers him in that cell."
Kid smiled. "Heyes, that brilliant mind and silver tongue has done it again!" Kid exclaimed.
"Best make tracks east then, Heyes said and they turned their horses eastward and galloped off, away from the sunset."