Chapter Seven

Catherine sat on the fence, one foot on the cross beam and the other dangling free, as she had each of the last three mornings; silently and intently watching the morning ritual of Heyes and Prometheus. Sometimes the two would just stare at each other from across the corral, other times Heyes would walk up to the animal and they would just stand that way, face to face, neither one moving or making a sound. This morning however, Heyes was leading the horse around the corral by a rope lead. The horse was walking calmly along beside Heyes as if the two were out for a morning stroll. As Heyes passed Catherine's perch on the fence, he looked up at the girl and smiled.

"I think he's beginning to trust me," he said, the excitement evident in his voice.

Catherine nodded and smiled back. "You're working with him just like Carmen's father does."

"Oh, really?" Heyes asked, his curiosity piqued. He walked away from the sleek gray stallion and leaned against the fence next to Catherine, his elbows resting comfortably on the railing on which she sat.

"Yes, he calls it—well he has a name for it in Spanish—but it means gentling. He says that you can make a horse obey by making him afraid, but you only get his loyalty by earning his trust."

"Jorge said that?" Heyes asked, remembering the Mexican man who had loaned Heyes his own horse so that he could follow the kidnappers who had taken Catherine. "Wise man."

"It's not a new idea," Heyes said, looking at the large animal, now calmly standing a few feet away and watching him back with large black eyes. "Too bad more people don't understand that. They keep thinking they have to strike fear into animals to get them to cooperate." He turned away and looked toward the mountains; his eyes took on a far away look. "People can be motivated by fear too. Sometimes that's all you've got."

"Is that how you got people on the trains to give you their money?" she asked quietly, broaching the subject she'd been avoiding since first getting to know the two men.

If Heyes was surprised by the question, he didn't show it. He continued to look toward the mountains but nodded slightly. "Yep, that's part of it. But mostly it's how we tried to keep people from getting hurt. If they were scared enough, they wouldn't try anything stupid. It kept us alive too. With the kind of men we were around most of the time, and the money we had on us sometimes, that fear protected us. Some of 'em had never even met your pa, but they were afraid of his reputation." A small smile played at his lips. "I can't tell you how many times I was at a poker table or in a saloon somewhere and just the thought that your pa might be around somewhere kept the other men from trying anything."

"But you don't need that anymore, either one of you. He seems…sad when people are afraid of him now," Catherine said quietly.

"I think you're right, but it's hard to change people's opinions." Heyes sighed and looked back at Catherine.

"But, you were never afraid of him were you?" she asked nervously.

Heyes laughed, the question filling him with amused surprise until he realized how serious she was in asking it. His face took on a somber expression to match the one he saw in the girl's own. "Of course not—never. I trusted him completely…with my life. Still do," he added softly.

"I was…a little afraid of him, when I first met him," she admitted, talking to the ground in front of her feet, ashamed to say it out loud. After a second she glanced apprehensively at Heyes, looking for his reaction.

To her relief, he merely nodded reassuringly, no judgment or recrimination in his face. "You didn't know him then so it's understandable. But you're not afraid of him now are you?"

"No, of course not, but…I don't know, I don't really understand him either. And I can't talk to him like I can talk to you."

Heyes merely nodded. "Well…" he began, "Kid never was much for talking about things. He's more for doing." Heyes and Catherine fell into companionable silence for a few seconds. Then Heyes pushed himself away from the railing on which he was leaning and said, "Catherine, what do you say we go for a ride? Can you saddle up Belle and that little filly of mine while I finish up here?"

"Sure," the girl agreed readily, "but…when will you be able to ride Prometheus?"

"I'm not sure, Catherine. He'll let me know when he's ready."

It was an odd thing for a man to say about a horse, but Catherine merely nodded her understanding as she set off for the stable to saddle the horses.

---

"Catherine…did I ever tell you about the time your pa risked his life to save a man from getting lynched—a bounty hunter—who had just tried to take us in?"

The two were riding side by side along the edge of the property line, Heyes telling the girl stories of the Kid, stories he hoped would help her understand who her father really was.

"Hey, look at that," Catherine squinted into the morning sun.

"Uh huh, I saw it," Heyes replied solemnly. He had seen the open gate of their north corral as they'd approached. The horses that Clay had moved there a few days before were strewn out along the slope down toward the river—on Denton property.

"What do we do?" the girl asked, glancing uncertainly at Heyes.

"Only one thing we can do…go get our horses," He replied, a look of determination on his face.

As they rode down the hill toward their horses, Heyes suddenly became aware of three riders approaching from the other side of the river. He quickly signaled for Catherine to slow down as they approached. "Stay calm, just let me do the talking," He cautioned.

"Why? What do you think is going to happen?"

"Nothing. But you can never be too sure."

When the riders got close enough to hear, Heyes said, "Howdy boys, we just came down to retrieve our horses. As you can plainly see, they're right down there by the river." Heyes gave the three men one of his most innocent and charming smiles, although his eyes never left the rifle barrel and two six-guns pointed in their direction. He recognized Zeke, Denton's foreman, but didn't know the two younger men.

"You're on Denton property," Zeke said, his rifle still aimed at Heyes.

"Well, of course we know that. I just explained to you that some of our horses got loose and wandered down here. Now, if you'd just lower those guns we'll go round 'em up."

Zeke lowered the rifle, a little too slowly and reluctantly for Heyes' taste, and gave a nod to the two younger men to put their guns away. "We're out looking for a horse thief," he explained. "One of Mr. Denton's best young colts disappeared last night and we figure the thief can't have gotten too far. Since no one has seen any strangers hanging around town lately, we're not ruling out any possibilities," he gave Heyes a warning look and then glanced over at the young man to his left. "Sy, you go with Mr. Heyes and help him round up his animals. Make sure he only takes his. Claude, you come with me, we have more territory to cover."

The two men rode off while Sy remained, giving Heyes a menacing look. "You go get 'em, I'll watch from right here. Don't think I want to turn my back to you." The man reached down and drew his gun, which he kept lowered, but the gesture alone implied a threat.

Heyes' smile was wearing thin. "Why on earth would you say that?" Heyes asked, forcing his voice to remain pleasant. "I've never given anyone on this ranch reason to think I'd give them any trouble."

"No, but your partner Kid Curry—he threatened to shoot Claude and me in the saloon a few days ago."

Catherine had remained completely silent up to that point, but Heyes heard her give an audible gasp at the last remark.

"Sy, my partner doesn't go around threatening people—at least not unless he has a real good reason. We mind our own business and we work our ranch. That's all we've been doin' for three years now. If your boss has a problem with us, you tell him to come see me and we'll work it out—like gentlemen, not with guns." Heyes spat out the last word as he looked down at Sy's six-gun.

"Come on Catherine, let's get what belongs to us and get out of here."

They silently herded the horses back up the hill toward their corral. Heyes dismounted and closed the gate after the last horse was in. Catherine had not spoken since they'd ridden away from Denton's gun-toting ranch hand.

"What did he mean?" she asked finally when they were headed back to the house.

Heyes knew what she was referring to, but didn't know how to answer her.

"I have no idea. Did anything happen when you two were in town on Tuesday?"

"No, nothing like what he said, except…"

"What?" Heyes turned quickly to look into the girl's face.

"Well, we weren't together the whole time. He left to go to the feed store, and he was gone a lot longer than he said he'd be. When I went to look for him I couldn't find him and…then he came back and we headed home."

Heyes felt a knot begin to form in his stomach. 'The Kid wouldn't go off and do something stupid would he? He had been suspicious of Denton, but he wouldn't go threaten his men…would he?' Curry had been not quite himself since Catherine's arrival, but Heyes attributed that to a slight disappointment over the high expectations the Kid had set for his daughter's visit. He'd talk to his partner when they got back to the ranch, sort all this out.

---

"What the hell were you doing in town this afternoon?" Heyes demanded as soon as Catherine had gone into the house and was out of earshot.

Curry looked up from where he sat mending one of the leather straps from a harness. His initial look of confusion was quickly replaced by one of guilt and regret.

"Aw, Heyes, I know I shouldn't have done it. I felt bad about it afterwards, but I was frustrated, just needed to let off a little steam, ya know?"

A look of confusion crossed over Heyes' face. "I don't believe you! You threaten to kill two men and you call it letting off steam?"

Kid blinked and stared at his friend. "What are you talking about?" he demanded, suddenly looking confused again.

"What are you talking about?" Heyes shot back.

"I went into the saloon while Catherine was at the shopping." He stared back at Heyes with a blank look.

"We ran into a couple of Denton's new hands this morning. They said you threatened to shoot them in the saloon."

"What? Oh…" he groaned and rolled his eyes.

Heyes continued to stare at his partner as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Heyes, I never threatened to kill anybody, and I had no idea those two guys worked for Denton."

Heyes relaxed slightly.

"Well, what were you doing then?"

"They…were talking to one of the girls and then she came over to see me and they…sort of took offense." He looked back a bit sheepishly.

Understanding began to dawn in Heyes' eyes.

"Oh, so you moved in on their territory and…"

"Heyes, I didn't move in on anybody. She came over to me and they wanted to make something out of it. But I didn't draw my gun and I didn't threaten them." Then more quietly he added, "Didn't have to. Somebody told 'em who I was and they left, quick as rabbits."

"And that was it?"

"That was it," he said firmly, blue eyes flashing. "And if you don't believe me, you can go down and ask—"

"Kid, I don't have to ask anybody, I believe you. Those two must have exaggerated the story some."

"Yeah," Kid scoffed, "them and everybody else."

He turned and headed toward the barn.

"Hey, where're you going?"

"I'm gonna take this harness back into the barn and finish up with the others, so we can hitch up our wagon for the church social tomorrow night."

Heyes could tell Kid still felt burned by his accusations and tried to call an apology after him. "Kid, I didn't mean—" but the other man had already disappeared through the barn door.

Heyes shook his head, silently reprimanding himself for being so quick to jump on the Kid. He didn't need that. Not now and especially not from him.

---

"Kid, there's more."

The voice from behind him gave him a start. He hadn't even heard Heyes walk into the barn.

"What?" he turned around quickly. "Is it Catherine? Was she there when you ran into those two from the saloon?"

"Yeah, she was there, but that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about. We found the gate open to our north corral and all the horses that Clay took up there were down by the river on Denton's side."

Curry narrowed his eyes. "Did you get 'em all?" he asked with concern.

"Yeah, we rounded 'em up, got 'em back in the corral, but Kid—Zeke said another one of Denton's horses was stolen last night."

"Oh, so it's 'stolen' now, not just missing? See, Heyes, I told you there was bound to be trouble."

"Maybe so," Heyes conceded. "I think it's best if we don't let Catherine go riding by herself right now. If someone's out there stealing horses…"

Curry nodded. "What do you want to do about Denton?"

"Nothing, for now. Maybe I'll ride out and talk to him in a few days, see what he's thinking."

"I'll tell you what he's thinking—he's thinking that Heyes and Curry are adding to their herd," he muttered.

"Well, I'll have a talk with him. If we're not taking those horses, somebody else is, so he should know to be on the look-out for strangers."

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