Johnson (From Journey From San Juan)
"They called themselves something like Barker and Slattery or like that, and they weren't cowboys, they were salesmen, only nobody could figure out what they were selling..."
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(Denver, a few years ago...)
"Go over the plan one more time, Heyes," Kid Curry said to his partner when they could see the outskirts of Denver along the distant horizon.
"We've gone over the plan at least a dozen times, Kid. You know the plan as well as I do."
"Uh-huh. Just go over it again."
"It's simple. I'm Barker and you're Slattery and we're traveling salesmen..."
"What are we sellin'?"
"What?" Heyes asked with a hint of irritation.
"If we're salesmen, what are we selling?"
"I don't know what we're selling," Heyes replied, the irritation growing in his voice.
"Well, if someone was to ask what it is we're selling, we ought to know," Kid replied.
"Fine! We're selling... shoes!"
"Where are our boxes? If we're selling shoes, we'd best have some samples to show people."
Heyes sighed heavily. "Alright, we ain't selling shoes. We're selling... knives."
"Well, at least you carry a knife. So we're knife salesmen, but we just carry one sample of a hunting knife?"
Heyes' irritation was quickly festering. "Then how about hats, or belts, or boots? Those things would give us two samples!"
"And all of em dusty and worn... Can't see folks wanting to buy something that ain't in pristine shape."
"Then how about guns! Yours is always in pristine shape."
Kid nodded. "Maybe guns and rifles, cause my rifle is kept in just as good of condition as my firearm."
"Fine. Guns and rifles," Heyes replied.
"Maybe I should clean your gun for you tonight, maybe your rifle, too."
Heyes rolled his eyes. "You can do that while I'm at the saloon playing poker."
Still taking the subject very seriously, Kid again nodded. "Now we got a believable plan."
"We'll be in and out of Denver in three days time, maybe less. We're just staying long enough to check out the Bank of Denver floor plan," Heyes assured his partner.
"You sure we should take on such a big project, Heyes? Denver's a big town. There's at least thirty, maybe forty thousand people living there. Won't be hard for the Sheriff to form a good size posse to come after us."
"That's exactly why we're scouting the place before we hit it. We'll see the floor plan of the bank, get a look at the safe, maybe the vault, and we'll look for the best escape route. After we get all the information we need, we'll talk it over with the rest of the gang and decide then if it's worth hitting that bank or not."
"And it ain't in Wyoming. You sure we want us and the boys to be wanted in more than one state?"
"Another point we'll discuss with the gang when we get back to Devil's Hole," Heyes said, feeling his irritation beginning to fester all over again.
"What if we run into somebody we know?"
"Out of forty thousand people, there's only two that would know us on sight. Would you quit worrying?"
"That's my job, Heyes. You do the planning, and I do the worrying."
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"Are you going to be done anytime soon?" Heyes asked Kid as he watched his partner sitting at the small table in their hotel room meticulously stroking the barrel of his gun with the polishing cloth."
"Just finishin' up on my gun, then I'm startin' on yours," Kid replied.
"The saloon is right across the street. I'm heading over there for a little poker. Why don't you come over when you're done?"
Kid nodded, paying far more attention to his work than to his partner's comments.
Heyes reached for his hat that was lying on the bed. He didn't like the idea of spending the evening without his own gun, but knew Kid would not surrender the weapon until it had a thorough cleaning.
Kid glanced up when he heard the door open and saw his partner about to leave. "I should be there in about an hour," he told Heyes. "Don't go getting in no trouble while you're on your own."
"I'll try my best not to," Heyes replied and shut the door behind him.
The Broken Axle Saloon was crowded for a Thursday evening and Heyes noted at least a half dozen poker tables in full swing. He approached the bar first and ordered a beer, then took his drink and turned his back to the bar to watch for an opening at one of the poker games.
"Need someone to fill an empty seat?" Heyes asked when a disappointed and now broke cowboy got up from one of the tables.
"Hope you play better than the last fella," said a crusty older, prospector type, who also happened to be the current dealer. "The name's Johnson."
"Barker," Heyes replied as he settled into the chair. "And I'll do my best to give you a good run for your money."
"You just passing through?" Johnson asked as he dealt the cards around the table. "Ain't seen you around here before."
"Yeah, just passing through."
"Business or pleasure?" Johnson asked.
"Business. My partner and I are salesmen."
The players all tossed their ante to the center of the table.
"What do you sell?"
"What?" Heyes asked as he studied his cards to stall for time. He was beginning to find Johnson as irritating as The Kid had been with all his questions.
"I asked you what you sell?" Johnson replied.
"Um, we offer a mail order line of... hardwares. Mostly guns and rifles."
"You gonna be set up somewhere or do you go door to door?"
"Heyes chuckled somewhat nervously. "Neither. We're a … We're on our way back to the home office in Cheyenne to restock and set out again."
"I thought you said it was a mail order business," Johnson said.
"I thought we was playing poker. I don't mean to be rude but, this stop over is a sort of little vacation for us."
"I can take a hint, Mr. Barker," Johnson replied. "How many cards you want?"
"Two."
True to his word, Kid Curry walked into the saloon almost exactly an hour after his partner. Like Heyes, Kid eyed the room, saw Heyes at one of the tables, then walked up to the bar and ordered a beer. Taking his glass, he made his way through the room and stopped a safe distance from the table where Heyes was playing with a healthy stack of winnings in front of him.
Heyes had not missed Kid's entrance, nor his approach to the table, and when a seat was vacated, Heyes turned his head and quickly invited the Kid to join them.
"Mr. Slattery, I think you'll find this game to your liking," Heyes said as Kid eased himself into the empty seat.
"I can see by your winnings that you're enjoying yourself, Barker," Kid said with a friendly smile and nod to each of the other players.
"You must be the other salesman," Barker deduced.
"That's right, and you are...?"
"Name's Johnson."
"Pleasure," Kid said casually. "What are we playing?"
"Five card Stud, no straights, no flushes," Heyes told him.
"Well, count me in," Kid replied.
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Sitting in their saddles outside the First National Bank of Denver, both Heyes and Curry were surprised by the size of the Denver Bank as the building alone took up most of a full city block. The building was located on fifteenth Street and was a massive, two story brick building.
"There ain't no alleyways around this bank. An escape is gonna be down a main street," Kid remarked.
"You realize we may be talking millions instead of thousands of dollars?" Heyes said with some excitement.
"Uh-uh, and a dozen instead of one or two armed guards," Kid added.
"One way to find out," Heyes added, and tapped his coat pocket containing all his poker winnings from the night before. "Let's go have a look."
They climbed off their horses and tied them to the post, then walked up to the front doors of the bank and went inside. The walls and flooring were lined with marble and the teller cage was an eighteen feet long and four feet tall marble base with eight mahogany framed cages with protective iron bars framing the teller windows. Along the back wall of the teller's cage was a Brooker 404 safe. At the other end of the massive customer area were open sectioned office spaces separated by three feet tall mahogany walls with swinging gates. This area contained the Loan Department, the Vice president's Office, and the entrance to a hallway that led to the bank's vault. Kid counted six armed guards on duty in the customer area alone.
Kid glanced at his partner and could see the disappointment in Heyes' eyes and the tight muscles in his cheeks. Still, Heyes took a deep breath, pulled the ones and fives from his coat pocket, and walked up to one of the tellers.
"I'd like to exchange this for tens and twenties," he told the teller.
Five minutes later, the two men walked out of the bank and climbed back into their saddles to head back to their hotel.
"Well look at it this way Heyes, you can't lose something you never had."
"A Brooker 404... The tumblers are nearly silent. We'd hafta blow that safe."
"And you can't do that without a lotta noise," Kid added.
"True, and it would make us wanted in another state."
"Which could add some years to a sentence."
"You're saying we should forget it, ain't you Kid?"
Kid nodded. "Aren't you?"
Heyes sighed heavily. "Yeah, I guess I am. I hate passing up a challenge."
"Think of it as a wager, Heyes. What are the odds of success?"
"When you put it that way, you're absolutely right... You know Kid, in a town this size, there's got to be more than one bank."
"Kid smiled. "Better off staying in Wyoming, but I s'pect it wouldn't hurt to check em out."
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The spent the rest of the day traveling the streets of Denver taking in an overview of the smaller banks in town, but came to the same disappointing conclusion that venturing out into another state was just too risky and dangerous. By late afternoon they had abandoned the idea altogether and returned to the hotel tired and hungry, and with a plan to visit another saloon that evening in hopes of avoiding that nosy player from the evening before. In the morning, they would set out for Devil's Hole.
"Mr. Barker! Mr. Slattery!" a familiar voice shouted to them from across the hotel lobby.
Kid and Heyes both stopped dead in their tracks and turned toward the sound of the annoying voice. Both uttered a subtle sigh when they saw Johnson marching toward them.
"I was hoping I'd find the two of you here. I'm thinking of buying a new rifle and wanna see what your company has to offer," he said in a voice that resonated throughout the lobby.
"I thought I explained last night we don't carry demonstration products with us and our catalogs have all been distributed," Heyes said hastily.
"And we a... we just got transferred," Kid added.
"Transferred? Where to?"
"To... other departments," Heyes explained. "Yeah, Mr. Slattery and me ain't selling guns and rifles no more."
"What are you selling?" Johnson asked.
"Ladies undergarments," Kid replied, while at the same moment Heyes claimed "Indoor water closets."
Both men then exchanged quick and questionable glances.
"Well, which is it?" Johnson asked, his curiosity about the two men now peaked.
"Both," Heyes replied. "Yes, Mr. Slattery and I have been moved to different departments. We won't be working together any more."
"Say, what's the name of this company you work for?" Johnson asked.
"The name?" Kid replied. "It's a... It's..."
"The Acme Homewares and Accessories," Heyes quickly replied.
"Never heard of em," Johnson stated.
"Yeah, well... it's a small company..."
"Growing by leaps and bounds," Kid added while looking at his partner and nodding his head rather vigorously.
"Where's it located?"
"St. Louis/Sacramento," they again spoke in unison and again exchanged nervous glances.
"I work out of the St Louis office and Mr. Slattery works out of the Sacramento office," Heyes explained.
"I thought you said you was partners," Johnson noted. "And I could have sworn you said your office was in Cheyenne."
"Oh we are, we are," Heyes replied. "We just have different home offices, and Cheyenne is the home base."
"Uh-uh," Johnson replied.
It was obvious to both of them that Johnson was not buying their fabricated story and both wanted to make a quick exit.
"I'm sorry we can't be of service to you Mr. Johnson, but the company has strict rules about not overlapping departments," Heyes told him.
"Besides, you can likely find a good gun shop here in Denver," Kid added.
"You two fellas gonna be at the saloon for some poker tonight? Give me a chance to get some of my money back?" Johnson asked.
Kid glanced about the lobby to see if they were attracting any attention, but cautiously shook his head as Heyes replied for the both of them.
"I'm afraid not, Mr. Johnson. Mr. Slattery and I have some packing to do. Maybe next time we're in town."
Heyes gave Kid a gently nudge toward the stairs and both quickly vanished from sight.
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"Heyes, you get the feeling that Johnson fella could be trouble?" Kid asked as they rode back toward Devil's Hole.
"Only if he knew who we really are. Otherwise, he's just a loudmouth looking for an easy dollar."
"But I sure got the impression yesterday that he didn't believe a word we were telling him."
Heyes laughed. "Would you?"
"I gotta admit, we shouldda gone over that plan a few more times. We did stumble over ourselves a bit."
"Well, next time we decide to use aliases, we'll pick ones that are more believable, like Smith or Jones."
"Aliases uh? I sure hope there ain't a next time for aliases, Heyes."