Heyes and Curry spent three days in Bishop, buying supplies, mapping out their intended travels, playing poker and tending to more primal needs. On the morning of their fourth day in Bishop, they packed their gear, paid their bills, and headed south toward Barstow, then south east toward Tuscon, and south again, crossing over the Mexican boarder a full three weeks after leaving Bishop.
"Well, here we are Kid, a full twenty feet into Mexico. Feel safer now?"
"I will once we are out of U.S rifle range," Kid quipped back to his partner.
Heyes smiled. "We should be in Nogales before nightfall. Then in the morning we can head south to Hermosilo."
"Glad you studied up where these cities are located."
Heyes smiled. "Well, it helps to have a map too," he said, pulling the map from his back pocket and giving it a wave in the air..
Kid laughed. "You know, Heyes, I am starting to feel a bit safer."
Nogales, Mexico stands right on the boarder of Mexico and the United States and abuts the U.S. City of Nogales, Arizona. The two cities, or rather towns, have no markers identifying which town a person is actually in, although locals in both towns are keenly aware. Knowing this, Heyes and Curry stayed close to the southernmost edges of the Mexican town.
They ate and drank in a local cantina and slept in a small hotel. After a filling breakfast, they started south toward. Hermosilo, a trek taking nearly three days of travel through dry, desert like conditions with an abundance of hot, dry sand and cacti.
They arrived with bone dry throats and sweat drenched shirts, tired and hungry and brought their horses to a halt at the first hotel they passed.
"Can we get a couple of baths?" Kid asked. "Podemos darnes un de banos?"
"Si. La casa de banos esta al final de calle," the desk clerk replied and pointed with his hand.
"What did he say?" Heyes asked.
"Ah, there's a bathhouse down the street." Kid replied.
"How did you get so good at Spanish?" Heyes asked.
"I ain't. I just know the phrases that are important to me."
"Ah, like donde esta the whore house?"
Once again the desk clerk pointed down the street.
Kid grinned. "Well, at least he thinks you're the one searching out the whores."
When they got upstairs they found their room was a corner room. This provided two windows and at least a little cross ventilation to cool the room.
"What do you want first Heyes, a drink or a bath?"
"A drink Kid. Otherwise I'll be sucking down the bathwater."
They dropped off their gear and opened the windows, then headed across the street to the cantina where they spent an hour polishing off three beers each. The a quick stop back at the hotel to pick up clean cloths and an hour later they were each soaking in big high-back copper tubs filled with cool, refreshing, though now gray water.
"I don't remember Mexico being this damn hot," Kid grumbled.
"That's because Santa Marta gets those nice ocean breezes."
"Well maybe we ought to try a coastal town."
Whatever you say. You're the one in charge of tourism," Heyes teased.
"But you're the one with the map," Kid reminded him.
Heyes lowered himself down further into the water. "Don't take a map to know the ocean is to the west."
Kid splashed some water in Heyes' direction, but Heyes was almost completely submerged in the water and the splash of dirty water went completely unnoticed.
0-0-0-0-0-
Like is true in any desert setting, the evenings cooled down nicely and the nights were often rather cold. After they had returned from their baths, both Heyes and Curry slept the heat of the afternoon away, but both were refreshed and eager for a good supper and an evening of entertainment.
"You know, everything's so cheap down here, our wages could easily last us the whole winter," Kid said as they ate enchiladas served by beautiful waitresses wearing brightly colored and shoulder revealing dresses, and washed their food down with beer.
Heyes smiled. The evening did hold the promise of fun entertainment. They played poker till well after midnight and when they stepped out of the saloon both were startled by how much the temperature had dropped. They darted across the street and hurried up to their hotel room. Kid quickly closed the front window and then the side window. But as he turned, he stopped and leaned against the window frame.
"Heyes, give me a pill," he said quickly through short, shallow gasps for air.
"Doc said not to mix em with alcohol," Heyes cautioned.
Kid raised pleading eyes to his partner and Heyes quickly retrieved the bottle from his saddle bags. He pulled off the cork and shook a pill into the palm of his hand that he then extended to Kid.
By now the whistling noises had again begun and Kid reached out quickly and slid the pill under his tongue and waited anxiously for the tightness in his throat and chest to ease. When it finally did, Kid nodded to Heyes, then walked with an exhausted step across the room and sat down on the edge of his bed. Still panting lightly, Kid looked across the room to Heyes.
"There's got to be a way to stop this, Heyes."
"Why don't we see a doctor in this town before we leave in the morning?"
"Maybe I'm just doomed to live in Wyoming
"Maybe we could build a little cabin somewhere away from the compound but still in Devil's Hole to wait out our amnesty," Heyes said with a twinkle in his eyes.
Kid found himself amused and smiling at the idea."We could start an outlaw's old folk's home for all them outlaws that are still wanted in their old age."
"Yeah, we could charge a lot of money and just rob them blind of all their stolen money."
"Assuming they had any left. We went through all of our pretty fast."
"Yeah," Heyes agreed.
"I'm going to go to sleep now...Heyes," Kid said and struggled a bit to get his boots off and the an covers pulled down. But as soon as he laid down, he was fast asleep and Heyes walked over and pulled the covers up over him.
Kid slept soundly the entire night, and soundly the entire morning, and Heyes was beginning to think perhaps the opium and alcohol combination had thrown him into some kind of unconscious state. But by early afternoon, Kid began to stir and waken.
"Glad to see you've decide to join the living once again," Heyes said to his still groggy partner.
"The living?"
"You slept a good twelve hours."
"I feel like I've got a hangover."
"You want some coffee for that?"
Kid nodded.
"I'll be right back," Heyes said and headed downstairs to the lobby while Kid just flopped back down on the pillow and covered his eyes with his hand.
When Heyes returned, Kid pulled himself up and leaned against the headboard, then took the cup of coffee Heyes was offering.
"What time is it?" Kid asked.
"Somewhere around two in the afternoon."
"Boy, I did sleep a lot."
"When you're awake enough, you want to go see the doctor?"
"I suppose. I think it must be the cold temperatures that triggers something."
"Then why doesn't it happen in Wyoming?"
"Maybe it does now. Who knows."
An hour later they were in the cramped little office of Dr. Ortiz, an older man with salt and pepper hair and a stout paunch, but who spoke fluent English, having studied medicine at Harvard.
"I think your previous doctors have all been correct that what you are suffering from is indeed asthma, and you may be on to something when you say it is aggravated by cold temperatures."
The last doctor, what was that about three months ago?" Kid said, turning to Heyes for confirmation. "He gave me opium tablets. They do a good job taking care of an attack."
"How often do you take them?"
"Just when an attack comes on."
"He ain't taken more than four, maybe five of them pills in three months,." Heyes added.
"Well, ideally, the goal is to prevent the attacks from happening, rather than waiting for them to happen to treat them."
"How do we do that?" Kid asked.
Even before the doctor spoke, Heyes could tell trouble was brewing.
"We know the dose you are taking is small, yet effective in alleviating the attacks. I would suggest cutting the dose in half and taking one tablet every morning., a second one if an attack occurs."
"But that's...opium." Kid said
"A very effective medication for your condition."
"There ain't no other treatment? I mean, people get addicted to opium."
"There is a significant difference between being dependent upon a drug and being addicted to a drug. I've seen many people wean themselves from opium without any difficulty whatsoever. You see there is an interesting thing about asthma. I have seen it literally absolve itself on it's own. I've seen people go years without a flare-up. I think we might be able to achieve that with you, if you're willing to take the medication the way I have prescribed."
Kid looked at Heyes with utter disappointment. Slowly he shook his head. "No, Sir. I can't do that. I don't want to get addicted to no pills."
"There is a hospital in San Francisco, a sanitarium that specializes in conditions of the lungs. Perhaps doctors there could advise you."
Kid nodded, though he had stopped listening.
"Would you write down the name of that place for us?' Heyes asked.
"Of course."
0-0-0-0-0-
"Let's stay here another night, Kid and figure out where we'll go from here," Heyes said as they walked out of the doctor's office in no better shape than when they had walked in.
"You think I'm right, don't you?" Kid asked.
Heyes sighed. "I don't know. I honestly don't know... Look, maybe it would be a good idea to go see those doctors in San Francisco. I'm sure Soapy would let us stay at his place. The doctors can figure out a plan to treat this, and they can keep a close eye on whatever medicine they suggest."
"I don't want to go back to the States, Heyes. Not yet"
"Kid, we can decide on what to do about the amnesty from Soapy's place just as easy as we can here. Both places, we ain't gonna be chased down by a posse. Nobody's gonna know we're there except Soapy. Besides, if it's cold temperatures that brings this on, we'll be in California, Kid. It's warm in California."
"I've seen it get plenty cold in San Francisco, and damp, too."
"Which makes it an ideal situation for the doctors to determine if those are the things that triggers your attacks."
Kid sighed. "Damn you, Heyes."
"What?"
Kid looked at his partner. "Damn you and that silver tongue."
Heyes smiled. "Then we'll go?"
Kid frowned but nodded.
They returned to the hotel room but Kid opted out of supper and an evening of gambling. Instead he slid in to bed, disappointed and depressed.
Heyes left the room only long enough to get some sandwiches and coffee that he brought back to the room with him. Then he settled onto the top of the covers of his own bed with a book and a sandwich, and stayed by his partner's side throughout the night.
The next morning, they gathered their gear, paid their bill, collected their horses and started on their way back to the States, one feeling relieved and even a little optimistic, while the other felt defeated and depressed.