The Secrets of Lady A's Saloon

A Fine Vintage

Challenge March 2024

Hannibal Heyes leaned back in his oversized chair near the fire in the leader's cabin at Devil's Hole. "And we found it in this locked chest in a hidden third floor bedroom built by Miss Angelica to hide outlaws." He smiled at the men from the Devil's Hole Gang gathered in the room. They enjoyed hearing his stories as much as he enjoyed spinning them. The Kid leaned, arms crossed, in the doorway of his bedroom watching with a grin.

"Come on, Heyes, tell us what happened," Kyle said, blue eyes wide in anticipation.

"Okay, well, me and the Kid went into Lady A's Saloon in Windy Bluff and here's what happened:

"Heyes, we gotta go right now!"

Startled, Hannibal Heyes pulled up the pants he was just starting to drop, glad he hadn't taken his boots off yet. He stuck his black hat on his head. Grabbing his shirt and vest in one hand and his gun in the other, he turned to the lovely brunette with the light brown eyes that he had paid the bartender to spend the next few hours with. "Sorry, darling," he said, as he slapped a few extra dollars on the end of the bed and left closing the door softly behind him. He could hear her sad sigh in the hall.

Jedediah 'Kid' Curry stood in the hall on one foot pulling on a boot.

"Kid, this better be good."

Even though he only had one boot on, Curry pulled his partner down the hall. "You ever heard of a US Marshal named Badlands Jefferson?" Curry asked, as he looked around as if deciding which was to go. Like Heyes, he was carrying his shirt, vest and gun. He only wore his jeans and that one boot.

"Heard of him. Likes the Dead part better than the Alive on our wanted posters."

"Must have seen us come in here. One of the girls came upstairs and warned me he was askin' the barkeep and anyone who'll listen which rooms Curry and Heyes are in."

Around a corner, the upstairs corridor of the saloon came to a dead end. "Where now Heyes?" Curry hurriedly put down his shirt and boot in order to fasten his gun belt around his waist and thigh.

Heyes looked out the second story window. "We could climb out the window and walk on the entrance overhang and maybe get to the roof next door."

"No good. See those two across the street starin' over here? Those are Jefferson's men."

"Then…" Heyes looked around, seeing a means of escape. "Then we throw our shirts out the window to make them think we're going that way and instead we go up."

"Up? Where up?"

Curry watched as his partner used his knife to pry open a short door that he hadn't even noticed. It hadn't been opened in a long time and was painted shut. Helping Heyes with his own knife, the door opened.

"Looks like no one but mice been here for a long time. Heyes, you sure we should go this way?" Curry asked. Pounding footsteps and loud banging to "Open this door now!" could be heard at the beginning of the corridor. "Guess we aint got no other choice."

After making a quick show of opening the window and throwing their shirts out, Curry and Heyes crawled through the short door only to find the hallway behind it was just as low and cramped. Curry did his best to close the door behind him and was surprised that now that it was loosened, it moved easily…and had a deadbolt on the inside.

Heyes lit a match and led the way. "Does it feel like we're climbing?"

"Sure does. Any idea where this goes?"

"Heard of old houses that had forgotten rooms and hallways…" Suddenly the tunnel widened, and they were standing in the middle of a large room. "One window and no other way out."

Curry stood on a dilapidated dresser to look out the high window. "We must be in the attic. I can see the street below real good on three sides. Those men are still staring at the saloon just waiting for us to come out. And there's another one in the alley."

"Then we wait." It was an abandoned bedroom, although someone had made an effort to make it comfortable. Heyes lit the lamp on the bedside table that still had oil.

Sitting in an overstuffed chair, Curry made himself comfortable. "What are you up to now?"

"Look what I found. A locked chest…looks like an antique. I have never been able to resist an unopened lock."

Curry smiled and explored the rest of the room while Heyes happily concentrated on the chest. There was no closet, just old dresses hanging on a bar. He thought of the saloon girls that must have looked mighty pretty wearing them. And in the back of the closet, he found a full-sized door. It too, had a deadbolt on their side but this one was not thrown until Curry worked the rusty bar free and locked the door.

"Heyes, guess what I found?"

"Can't be as good as what I found in this trunk." He held up an old bottle of wine. "It's over twenty five years old." The outlaws smiled. As long as they had to stay here and wait for Badlands Jefferson to leave, at least they had something to good to drink.

ASJ*****ASJ

It wasn't until the next morning that the heavy footfalls and banging on doors below them stopped. Badlands Jefferson was not one to give up. He kept yelling that he had seen them go into the saloon and knew they were hiding somewhere. He found the opened window. The shirts they had thrown out had blown to the roof of the next building…a one story, one room post office. In the end, Jefferson had to admit defeat. Still, before he and his men left town, he tied his horse in front and kept circling the saloon shaking his head.

Curry watched from the high window until he was sure they had ridden away and weren't coming back. Cautiously, the two outlaws left through the door in the closet. They were indeed on the third floor and found a ladder that took them all the way to the ground floor, skipping the second floor altogether. When they stepped off the ladder, they found themselves behind the bar with the bartender staring at them, arms folded in front of them but a smile on his face. And they remembered they only had their long johns on top.

"You must be the Curry and Heyes that marshal was looking for last night. Seems like you found Miss Angelica's room."

"Miss Angelica's room?"

"Lady A's Saloon – Miss Angelica. She founded this place and had that room you found built to hide outlaws and other fugitives."

"Well, it did its job," Curry said, looking over the bar, scanning the room for threats.

Heyes plopped the empty wine bottle on the bar. "It even came with a vintage wine to drink!"

Astonished, the barkeep exclaimed, "You opened that chest? The key has been missing since she died over twenty years ago." He chuckled. "And she'd be smiling that two fugitives hid in that room and did indeed enjoy a vintage bottle of wine. "