Lobo Riggs (From The Biggest Game in the West)

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We all know Kyle's got a soft heart and a simple sort of mind. We also all know that even though they walked away from the gang more than a year ago, Kyle still holds a certain amount of loyalty towards Heyes and The Kid. So there are times when it falls upon our shoulders to bring Kyle around to the right way of thinking. Wheat's the only one that's actually good at that, but Wheat was off to Denver when The Kid came riding hell bound for leather into the Devil's Hole camp, demanding that we give him all the money we stole from that poker game in Lordstown.

Naturally, our first reaction was to just laugh in The Kid's face. I mean, who do him and Heyes think they are, expecting us to hand over one of the biggest heists in Devil Hole's history. And on top of that, expecting us to do that without consulting the leader of the gang. No siree, Bob, ain't one of us dumb enough to even consider such a foolish notion.

Except of course, Kyle.

Kyle always had had more than a common admiration for Heyes and The Kid. Now I ain't one to go analyzing another man, but I do think that admiration stems from the fact that Heyes and The Kid gave Kyle more than his due amount of respect. Oh sure, they'd let a comment slip now and again, like telling Kyle if there was a meaning to life, he was gonna miss it, but whenever push would come to shove, they'd listen to Kyle's opinion as much as they'd listen to any of the rest of us.

I think that was because Kyle was after all, what outlaws referred to as a good stick man. Kyle understands dynamite the way Heyes understands the workings of a safe, and every gang needs a good stick man to be successful. So, while Kyle's light might not shine as bright as the rest of us, he's still a valuable member of this gang.

So when Kid came to us wanting us to turn over all that money to him, I could see that Kyle was wavering toward doing exactly what The Kid was asking. Now Kyle ain't real good with numbers, and 235 thousand numbers I think was a might more than Kyle could really calculate. That amount of money split among us seven gang members tallied down to over 33 thousand dollars apiece Why, we wouldn't have had to rob another bank or train for the rest of our sorrowful lives.

I tried real hard to explain that to Kyle, but when Kid started dangling the offer of us keeping the 35 thousand that belonged to him and Heyes, and reminding us that by doing that we wouldn't have all them wealthy ranchers out for revenge, I could see he'd won Kyle over.

And Kyle did offer as good an argument as I've ever heard outta him, saying even Wheat weren't likely to object to having a smaller amount free and clear. Now I did feel obligated to remind Kyle that if he handed that money over to The Kid, it was him and him alone that would be telling Wheat what he up and done.

Even Kyle could see the danger in that, and he started wavering again cause he realized no matter which way he chose, he was gonna hafta to answer to someone and the question was, did he want to hafta answer to Wheat or to Heyes and The Kid. That's when I realized that looking at it that way, it really wasn't a hard decision.

So Kid Curry rode off with the two hundred thousand dollars and left us with the 35 thousand that belonged to him and Heyes. As for the rest of us, well after we settled down a bit, we came to the conclusion that it likely was better not to have those ranchers hiring bounty hunters to shoot us all in that back, so we all set to work helping Kyle figure out just how to explain it all to Wheat when he got back.

We decided on telling Wheat straight up what happened,but we did decide to add just one embellishment. We told Wheat that The Kid had said if we didn't return that money, him and Heyes was gonna come back and take over being the leaders of the Devil's Hole gang again.

Now I ain't sure, but I think I seen Wheat quaking in his boots at the thought of them two coming back.