The Kid and Heyes rode away each lost in his own thoughts. The silence stretched into several hours as stormy sky darkened with ominous clouds. The heat from earlier in the day was radiating off the red rock walls on either side of them and the two took pains to ride down the center of the canyon keeping an eye out for familiar signs on the way. The brush was becoming thicker and less stunted indicating they were probably rising a bit in altitude. Their horses carefully picked their way through the vegetation. It was slow going.

Heyes was wondering if someday he would feel guilt over killing Jake. Right now, he only felt relief his partner was safe and they had one less Hawkins to worry about. It was taking all his strength to put one foot in front of the other and he had no energy to mourn his passing. As for Lindy, Heyes figured they'd be seeing her sooner or later. That woman was a mistake he never wished to repeat.

The Kid wondered if Heyes' silence was due to remorse or illness. He was glad to have his partner at his side where he could keep a close eye on his condition. He was scared Heyes was right and the damage to his brain might be permanent. He'd been confused again today, but it had passed quickly. It was clear his head pained him and his eyes were bad, but a lot of the other symptoms had disappeared. He remembered the delusions and anger Heyes had suffered from immediately after the accident. Thankfully, those were gone. The seizures were the most frightening symptom and he swore he'd get his partner to a doctor as quickly as possible. Reaching up and feeling the raw wound on his neck, he marveled Heyes had managed to kill Jake. As bad as his eyes were it had taken a lot of guts to risk the shot. He was grateful he had.

Heyes saw Kid touch his neck. He had thought he'd led him to his death when Jake Hawkins had held the knife to his neck and drawn blood. He was beginning to realize how stupid he'd been riding off and leaving his partner. What had he been thinking? They were always better off together; always had been. They'd learned the hard way. He'd realized when the Kid had shown up at the seeps how relieved his was to have his partner with him again. He was frightened, more than he'd ever admit. He sighed and shifted in his saddle, his head was throbbing and his knees were sore. The wind was starting to push at their backs whipping grit and sand about the canyon floor. From the looks of the sky, they needed to find shelter soon. Heyes had seen some wind holes further back, but no caves. Wind holes were formed by the wind driving grit into the soft sandstone over millions of years eventually scouring out a cave-like depression and Heyes knew they provided poor shelter.

Soon, the wind began howling. Bits of sage and debris took to the air, whipped up by the strengthening gusts. Curry pulled his bandanna over his nose and tightened his stampede string to secure his hat. The sting of the sand reddened his face. He looked over at his partner. Heyes had tipped his head forward and the brim of his tied-down black hat was shielding his eyes. The horses had lowered their heads almost to the ground to avoid the worst of the storm. They had to find shelter. He yelled over the wind only to have his words snatched away, but Heyes looked out from under his hat and nodded.

Heyes led them to the left hand wall of the canyon hoping the rough contours of the rock would provide some respite from the wind. They stumbled on this way for quite a while until Heyes tipped his head forward onto his chest, and his hands clutched the horn.

The Kid was pretty sure he was dozing. He quietly reached out and caught up the bay gelding's right rein. Leading his partner and the rider-less horse, he rode on until he came to a small side canyon. It cut off the main canyon they were now in and would provide a windbreak of sorts. He led the way in.

He'd found the perfect spot. Two boulders had fissured from the canyon wall and tumbled down onto the sandy hillside tucked up against the rock face. One stood tilted on its smaller end with the top resting against the wall behind it. The other one had fallen down on the first and slid down the face of it to lie on its side providing a windbreak on two sides. It was enough. Over the centuries since the rocks calved off the canyon wall small trees and shrubs had grown in the shade provided by the large boulders. Sand had caught and backfilled the empty spaces. It would block most of the wind nicely and provide a dry spot should it rain.

The Kid rode into the partial enclosure and dismounted. He tied his horse and Jake's horse to one of the trees where they could nibble for forage then led Heyes' horse to the most sheltered spot and reached up to help his partner to the ground. Heyes was asleep with his fingers tightly curled around the horn. He had to pry his hands open, but Heyes hardly stirred. Pulling him by the arm, he slid him off his horse. Damn, he was light! He couldn't believe how light. He settled his cousin in a sitting position, half-awake, and pulled the saddle from the horse before leading it over to the others and unsaddling and hobbling each of them before turning them loose one at a time. There was no telling how bad this storm would be and the horses needed to be free to fend for themselves. He already had his hands full with Heyes. He dragged the two saddles and gear back over to his partner who was sound asleep sitting up with his head bowed. He gently wrapped a saddle blanket around him and tipped him back against his saddle.

The wind was howling through the canyon now. The rocks around them deflected the worst of it, but the sand was flying. The Kid sat and leaned against the rock at his back. He watched Heyes sleeping several feet away and let his thoughts wander.

Was Lindy following them? He'd been keeping an eye out for her, but had seen no sign of her. There would no longer be any tracks for her to follow. The wind was wiping them away. A good tracker would know to look for other signs such as a crushed plant or broken branch, maybe a scrape on a rock from a horse shoe, and could probably follow a trail in this weather, but he doubted Lindy would have the skill. She was probably lost by now and he had a hard time feeling sorry for her. His Ma had always said you reap what you sow and he figured Lindy was getting what she deserved.

Is that what had happened to him and Heyes? His Ma would probably think so. They'd done plenty of wrong things for a very long time. Is that what this was all about? The amnesty was punishment for their life of crime? It sure would explain all the suffering they'd gone through since they'd quit outlawing. Was Heyes paying for his brilliant robberies by losing his mind? If so, what would be his punishment? Maybe it was watching his partner suffer and not being able to help much.

He closed his eyes at the morbid thoughts chasing around in his head and when he opened them he noticed Heyes was stirring. No. Not stirring, he was having another seizure. Kid saw him arch his back and begin to flail his arms. Kid crawled the few feet to Heyes and grabbed at his arms worried he would get hurt. The reaction was instant. Heyes went berserk, growling and screaming, fighting him. He was shocked by his strength. He could barely hang on, but was too afraid for his partner to let go. He could feel the incredible strain in Heyes' muscles. His jaw was snapping open and closed and he worried he might bite his tongue. He shoved a bit of the horse blanket into Heyes' mouth to stop the gnashing and hoped the seizure would pass. It seemed to last forever and then it was over. Heyes collapsed in his arms and lay still.

He was so shaken by the whole thing he sat back and held onto Heyes, not wanting to let him go. His partner was drenched in sweat and trembling. He pulled the horse blanket out of his mouth and tucked the blanket tightly around him. Without conscious thought, he began to sway as though rocking a child to sleep. He rocked for a very long time.

He must have dozed off. He felt Heyes move and he opened his eyes. Heyes was looking up at him.

"I had another one, right?"

"Yep.".

Heyes pushed away from him and rolled over onto his back with the blanket falling open underneath him. He stared up at the darkening sky for a long time and then said, "Still think you want to ride with me, Kid?" Turning, he looked at the him wanting to see his answer more than hear it.

"Always, partner, you know that."

"I don't know how long I can take this, Kid. I'm so tired I want to lie down and die."

"I don't want to hear that kind of talk from you, you hear?" The Kid saw it was true, though. Heyes was spent. He'd never heard his partner talking about giving up before, even at his worst. "You're tired. We'll stay here a day or two and you'll feel better.".

"It's more than that. I'm scared. This scares me worse than anything ever has. I know it's happening. I can feel my mind slipping away and I can't do anything about it. I always thought if I worked hard enough and thought long enough I could do anything, but I can't do anything about this."

"We don't know what's happenin'. We need to get you rested and then we need to get you to a doctor. We'll be out of this damned maze soon. Promise me you won't give up..

"I can't promise. I don't have any control over this." Heyes was so tired. "Let me rest now." He closed his eyes.

"No! No, dammit, you're not going to sleep on me again. We're going to talk this through right here and now."

Shocked by the outburst, Heyes struggled to sit up. The Kid pulled him up against his saddle and sat down next to him. "Heyes, I've watched you do amazin' things all my life. You take pleasure in defyin' the odds and I don't see why you'd be givin' up now. Look at what you've done. You took a snot-nosed kid under your wing when you were a child yourself and you took care of me despite the odds, Heyes. We couldn't find work, so you taught us to steal, but being able to survive wasn't enough for you. We had to be the best. We had to be the best ever and we were."

Heyes chuckled, "We were, weren't we?"

"Yes, and now we're doing somethin' no other big-time outlaws have ever done. We're gonna get amnesties." He held up a hand. "Shut up, Heyes. I know I started this whole amnesty thing and I know you went along with it because I wanted it and you saw it as a way out of gunslingin' for me. Well, I wanted it for you, too, but I see how hard this last year has been on you and I want it to be done. If you want to go back to outlawin', I'll go with you. We don't need to rob banks and trains, there's lots of other ways to steal, we can pull cons and you're a great cardsharp. I know you chose to go after the amnesty for me and it's been hell on you."

"Kid, I didn't…," began Heyes only to be cut off.

"Shut up, for once in your yakkin' life please shut up and listen to me. I'm only sayin' this to you once and if you tell anyone I swear I'll kill you. I love you. I will carry you out of here on my back if I have to. You are my best friend in the whole world and I will follow you anywhere, anytime but you have to promise to give me the chance to."

Heyes blinked a few times and opened and shut his mouth. The Kid began to be afraid he'd brought on another spell when he finally said, "I promise, okay? Now shut up and let me sleep." He closed his eyes.

Kid stared at him a second and yelled, "That's it? I pour my heart out to you and all you have to say is shut up and let me go to sleep? That's it?"

"Yep."

OOOOOOOOOO

The next day, the boys woke to a different landscape. The wind had piled drifts of sand covering much of their gear and the surrounding shrubs. The Kid spent quite a bit of time shaking out blankets, opening and upending saddlebags, and generally knocking sand out of every place it sought to hide.

Heyes was moving slowly so his job was breakfast. They had long since run out of coffee so he wandered up the canyon to look for squaw tea. He knew since they were at a higher altitude it should be easy to find. He also collected some cactus pads. He and Kid were not in a hurry to pack up so he had some time to make a real breakfast. A while later he returned to their camp with full hands. He washed out the tea pot with some of their precious water and set a pot of the medicinal tea to brewing. Maybe it would make him feel better. Taking the cactus, he used his knife to scrape off the prickers and chop the pads into bite sized chunks. He took the horse meat, cut it up and tossed it all together in their old frypan over the fire. He wished he had some eggs or seasonings to go with it, but at least they'd have a hot breakfast. It had been a very long time since the last one and they were allowing themselves the luxury of a leisurely morning. He'd agreed with his partner they no longer needed to worry about being followed. There wasn't much chance of anyone finding them after last night's windstorm.

The two men enjoyed their meal and then took the time to sit together for a while to watch the soft glow of dawn melt into a bright sunny morning. The red rocks of the canyon glowed in the early light.

"Heyes, you never said last night whether you wanted to quit tryin' for the amnesty.

Heyes smiled and sipped at his tea. It was steaming hot, the way he liked it, and the steam rose from the cup in the coolness of the morning. "Kid, you didn't give me a chance to say much of anything. I seem to recall a lot of 'shut ups."

"Well, do you?"

"We talked about this on the ride out of Dolores, or am I confused?" Heyes quipped.

"Yeah, but a lot's happened since then. What do you want to do now?"

"I don't feel much like making future plans."

"You said you wouldn't give up."

"I'm not. You were right last night- about everything. I'm not going to give up on it, but I may help if you're still offering."

"Good, Heyes. That's all I need to know." For Heyes to admit he needed help was a huge step in the right direction. It really was enough. Curry took a sip of tea and let his gaze roam about the small side canyon they had camped in.

"Look!" The Kid pointed to the opposite side of the canyon and up a ways. There on a small ledge of rock, two thirds up the wall, was a small stone structure. It was the size of a large steamer trunk and tucked back under the shadows of a slight overhang. Curry could see it was not natural and had been man made. It reminded him of the stone house he and Heyes had stayed in that awful night a couple of weeks ago.

"I can't see it, Kid. My eyes are too blurry. What is it?"

"It looks like one of those ruins only smaller."

"Is it far? Can we walk to it?

The Kid could tell Heyes wanted to see it bad, so he set down his tea, took Heyes' from his and led the way over to the side of the canyon. It was an easy climb to the small structure and they were there in minutes. They had to crouch way over to fit under the overhang and the Kid crawled in first in case there were rattlers about. Snakes hid from the heat of the day in cool places and it paid to be careful even early in the day.

"What do you see?" said Heyes, pushing at his back. "C'mon, move over so I can see."

Smiling at his partner's curiosity, he moved aside and Heyes crawled to the stacked stones. "There's no door. It must some kind of storage. Look, that stone, there, it's different from the others." Heyes reached up and tugged at the stone and it came out easily. Grinning at him, he went to reach in, but stopped suddenly and scooped up a handful of pebbles and tossed them in. Listening for a rattle, neither partner heard a sound.

"No snakes. That's good." Curry watched him pull down several more stones. It was good to see Heyes excited. Last night, he' been lower than he'd had ever seen him. If Heyes was going to be impaired, it would take all of his resourcefulness to keep his cousin's spirits up. This was a good start.

Heyes had made an opening large enough to poke his head into. "There's an old crock in here! It's got a lid on it. Help me pull away more of these stones," said Heyes happily. Side by side, the two worked away enough stones so they could pull out the crock. The Kid reached in and carefully helped Heyes drag the old stoneware out. It was big, almost two feet in diameter and height and was sealed with what looked like pitch. Pressed into the pitch was a bundle of long colored feathers and bits of stone and turquoise. Neither man had ever seen anything like it. The feathers were from a large bird judging by the length of the, and were in faded colors of blue, gold and red. "There aren't any birds like these in the West and it's old, real old." It was plain Heyes was thoroughly intrigued. "Should we open it?"

"May as well, I'm pretty sure the owner is long gone," said Curry with a grin. "You do it."

With a huge smile, Heyes gently pulled at the pitchy substance sealing the lid to the pot. He carefully pried at it, not wanting to break the pottery. It was a work of art. The vessel was made by hand using coils of clay. Pressed into the ropey layers were little tiny impressions as decorations sealing the layers together. He chuckled happily. Lifting the pot, the two partners peered in heads together. "Corn. It's corn!" said the Kid. "It's somebody's cache."

Heyes, reached into the corn gingerly. Pulling out a handful, he smelled it. "It's real old and dusty, but it's corn!" He laughed and kicked his feet in pleasure.

"Is it edible?" asked the Kid which sent Heyes into gales of laughter.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Heyes set the last of the stones back in place and crawled out to where the Kid was waiting. He had used a couple of matches to reseal the pitch as best he could and had carefully tucked the crock back into the cache. They had all the food they needed. Heyes wouldn't risk eating something so old as this corn, despite loathing horsemeat, but he knew someday it might mean the difference between life and death for someone else so he had carefully rebuilt the stone cache.

Curry had sat back to relax. He enjoyed watching Heyes at work on a task. This is what drove Heyes, learning something new or figuring out a plan. As he had this thought he realized what had been so hard on his cousin, so much of their quest for amnesty was an endless grind of riding from town to town trying to drum up enough work to eat. When they'd had the gang, Heyes had always had something to work on; a new plan, fixing up the Hole or keeping the boys from killing each other. There wasn't much he could do about it, but it made him feel better to think Heyes was more bored than regretting the amnesty.

Heyes came over and sat next to him with a grin on his face. "There must've been people living here, or at least passing through these canyons a lot, a real long time ago. I wonder if it was this dry or different. I wonder if the people who stored the corn were the folks who left the hand prints. It's like they're here, helping us through."

"Yep, and I bet they didn't have an easy time of it either, but it looks like they kept at it."

Heyes nodded at the gentle rebuke, "I can't promise I won't get low from time to time, but I do promise to let you know when I'm getting there. All right?"

"Works for me."

"I never saw anything like this on my last trip through-just the handprints. I wonder how many more caches there are in these canyons?"

His enthusiasm was music to Curry's ears. He knew if his partner's mind was busy all was well. Rising, he extended a hand and helped Heyes up. "C'mon, partner, the only way to find out is to ride on out of here. The day's heatin' up, we'd better get goin'."