Kid Curry (From Return to Devil's Hole)

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There are times, I'll admit not often, but there are times when I have serious doubts about Heyes being a genius. This was definitely one of those times. I'm not real sure just why he up and decided to break his own, vary adamant rule about never allowing a woman into Devil's Hole, and if me, or Wheat, or one of the other boys had tried to do that, well there would have been serious repercussions, maybe even permanent ones, like getting' ousted from the gang entirely.

Heyes made that rule for a couple of reasons. The first was that a man gets naturally distracted in the company of a woman, and when a man is distracted in the way I'm talking about, well he doesn't always think straight. In fact he doesn't always think, period. When a man ain't been in the company of a woman for some time, he starts getting... testy I guess is the word, and when he starts getting testy, there's just three or four ways to ways to get over that and... Well, I think you can see where I'm going with that.

The second reason Heyes never allowed women into the hideout is the simple fact that, now you women don't go getting yourselves in a huff over this but, well women just plain can't keep a secret. If a woman was to visit Devil's Hole, the hideout wouldn't be safe for us anymore cause she'd be blabbin' the location to all her friends.

So I guess that rule just boiled down to the fact that Heyes was lookin' out for all of us. Now he understood about a man needing the company of a woman sometimes and that's why he let the boys venture into some nearby town once a month. In fact, he use to call it the boy's monthly cycle. The boys never found that particularly humorous the way Heyes did.

But after Heyes and me left Devil's Hole for good, and Jim Santana took over as leader, we had heard that he kept that particular rule, and was even more strict about it than Heyes was. In fact, Wheat once said that Santana made them boys live like monks and that Devil's Hole was starting to feel more like a prison than a sanctuary.

So I just didn't see why Heyes up and broke his own rule and agreed to take Miss Phillips right into the outlaw camp. Oh, I'm sure her feminine charm might have played a part in it, and I know that wad of money she waved in front of him had something to do with it, but Heyes had always been better than the rest of us when it came to self discipline. That's why his decision had me so stumped. He knew the risk he was takin.' He knew takin' that risk just might get himself killed, and he knew if he was goin' to up and do it anyway, he should have me along for protection.

And yet he still just up and decided to spit into the wind.

Not the actions of a genius.

I knew Wheat and Kyle and the boys would do their best to look after Heyes cause if there is one thing to be said about them boys, its that when push comes to shove, they're loyal. But I also knew Santana would do everything he could to keep Heyes as far away from the boys as possible.

Santana ain't the same kind of leader that Heyes was. Being leader is a power game to him. He demands respect but he don't do nothing to earn it. Heyes earned the respect of all the boys by being a fair man, by takin' the boys concerns into consideration, by always lookin' out for everyone's safety, and by splittin' the loot evenly amongst all of us. Him or me would hafta temper Wheat sometimes cause Wheat has some grandiose ideas. But Heyes never tried to douse the fire, so to speak. He'd just water it a bit to keep it from getting outta control.

Now ever since we was boys, Heyes and me have had a way of talkin' to each other without needing actual words, and when Heyes was getting saddled and ready to head up to Devil's Hole, he gave me the all the money he had. He said it was for safe keeping and I knew what he meant by that. I slipped the money in my pocket and leaned against the barn and watched him and Miss Phillips ride off, and that's when everything just fell into place, and I knew exactly why Heyes had decided to take that woman into the hideout.

It was all a matter of proving something, maybe to himself as much as to Santana. But even though Heyes weren't the leader no more, he had to take Santana down a notch, and not for his own satisfaction. He was doing it for them boys. He was hell bent on knocking a few chinks outta Santana's armor, and on making sure Santana knew them boys were aware of it. Taking Miss Phillips into the camp was like riding in there with a Gatlin' gun, and she was the gun.

Well, as it turned out, she not only was the gun, but she had a gun, and things didn't go exactly as planned. Well, truth be told, not many of Heyes' ideas go exactly as planned, but in spite of everything that happened on that trip, Heyes accomplished exactly what he set out to accomplish.

In fact, I think Heyes accomplished even more than he actually set out to do, cause to hear Heyes tell it, Santana turned to much around that woman, and ended up leaving the gang and running off with her. That left the door open for Wheat to step in and take over as leader.

I had to laugh when Heyes told me Wheat was countin' coup when Heyes left. That sounds like something Wheat would do, likely telling them boys that he planned that whole takeover.

But the important thing is that the gang got back to being the gang they was before Jim Santana came into the picture, and Heyes said the first rule Wheat proclaimed was that there was to be no women in Devil's Hole.

Ever.

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Author's Note: OK, I lied about not writing a chapter on Return to Devil's Hole, but only because I realized it was an opportunity to give Kid the opportunity to reflect on his partner without it turning into a major argument between the two of them. Kid was, after all, a minor character in this episode. I did not however, lie about the fact that I do not watch this episode, ever.