Lawyers, Guns & Money

Squinting Weasel held out his hand and Curry put a hundred dollar bill in it. It felt so odd that most of his life; he might have had ten dollars to his name, now he could pass out that kind of money. Squinting Weasel slapped him on the shoulder, “ You learn quickly. And now my whiskey?”
Heyes struggled from the wagon with a large case of whiskey and put it the waiting hands of a brave, who immediately disappeared with it. He leaned over to the Kid, “ I’m not so sure about giving whiskey to Indians. Just doesn’t strike me as the brightest idea on Earth.”
“ No worries,” Squinting Weasel assured them as he waved goodbye to them. “ We sell it to the soldiers over at the fort for a sixty-three percent mark-up. Their supply chain is shit.”
Heyes shook his head as he mounted up, “ I’m starting to like the old weasel.”

The small party pushed on for the days ride to the old mine. Up the winding trail, past the Catspaw forest, past Tallulah gorge, past Powder Rock falls. Heyes rode on next to Clem, pointing out the sights; marveling at the scenic beauty that the cow skin map had given no clue about. They had only needed to stop once to repair the wagon when it threw a wheel. After a critter check, the girls had gone swimming, while Curry and Heyes watched from rocks above.
“ Make you a little nervous that Victoria volunteered to go swimming with Clem?” Heyes wondered out loud.
Curry took the grass stalk out of his mouth. “ Yep.”
“ You don’t think she’ll try to drowned her do you?”
Curry looked over at Heyes, “ From what I remember, Clem had hold her breath a real long time.”
“ Yep.” Heyes shifted nervously, “ Well, we could always jump in and intervene if anything happens.”
Curry leaned forward and looked over the edge and looked back at Heyes. Heyes leaned over the edge and looked back at the Kid. “ Long way down.”
“ Yep.”
“ You know, I’ve been thinking and have come to the conclusion that maybe this is something we need to let the girls just iron out between themselves.” Heyes looked thoughtfully up at the sky.
“ Yep.”

Victoria swam back and forth, never getting to close to Clem. I could just hit you over the head with an iron.
“ Well this water sure feels good,” Clem suggested. She always felt unease about the way Victoria looked at her.
“ Yep.” Lay you out in the south forty and no one would ever know.
“ Think they’ll be done with the wagon soon?” Clem tried again. She was pretty sure that Vic knew she had slept with the Kid; she just didn’t know how she knew.
“ Yep.” A little vervain in their eggs and the boys won’t even remember that you existed.
“ You know, I never got the chance to congratulate you on your marriage.” Clem stammered out.
I’m sure that comes from the bottom of your black little heart. “ Nope.”
“ No, and I just wanted to let you know that you must be someone very special for the Kid to even consider settling down.” Clem assured her.
You have to sleep sometime, Medusa, and I’ll be watching. Vic swam closer to Clem. “ Yep.”


Ox rambled up behind the boys. “ We’re all fixed, Mr. Jones. We can get on our way.”
Curry leaned over the edge of the rock ledge and shouted, “ Saddle up, ladies!”
From where they were saddling their mounts back up, Heyes poked Curry in the side and pointed to Vic emerging from the bushes, holding up two fingers behind Clem’s head like devil horns.
Heyes mounted up and looked over at an amazed Curry. “ Now that’s creepy.”
“ Yep.”


He thundered over the miles, his long black matted hair trailing behind him. The beast carried him swiftly and pursued the prey as much as the rider. She had dared to look him in the eye, and it told him everything he needed to know. It wasn’t the money on these two that spurred him forward. It was revenge. Revenge for The Smiler. The Kid killed The Smiler. He would kill the Kid first while the other watched. He would be merciless. Then kill the other while she watched both. He would then suck the light from her soul and leave her empty. He had been sent from the devil himself and they couldn’t touch the blackness in his heart. Their bullets couldn’t touch the harshness of his body.


Excitement was high as they reached the area where the old mine entrance should have been. It should have been there. All Heyes could see was the rock face and trees. “ This has got to be it! We’re two miles due east of the Steamboat rock, and the old road ends just up ahead.” Heyes shook his head.
“ Maybe that’s not Steamboat rock,” Curry suggested helpfully.
Heyes rolled his eyes and pointed, “ That rock looks exactly like a steamboat.”
Clem turned her head to the side and pondered for a moment, “ Doesn’t look like a steamboat to me.”
“ It is Steamboat rock.” Vic confirmed.
Curry came up beside him. “ Why don’t we split up and have a look around? Could have been a cave in is just covering up the old entrance.” He trotted back to the wagon and instructed Ox and Mr. Nightlinger to set up camp at a clearing they had passed a couple of miles back while they went off to search.
He returned to the group to hear Clem arguing with Heyes, “ There most certainly could be cougars up here. I am not going off to ride alone, I am staying with you.”
“ She’s right, there could be cougars around here.” Vic informed the boys.
“ Then it’s settled,” Clem said as she took off with Heyes.
The Kid and Vic looked at them going up around the bend to search where the old road stopped. Then they looked at each other. “ I’ll go right if you want to take the left.” Vic suggested.
Curry furrowed his brow, “ Are you sure? There could be cougars out there.”
Vic looked excited, “ Oh let’s hope so! Twisted Oak would just die if we could get him a set of teeth.”
Curry decided against his better judgment to let Vic go by herself. They would be able to cover more ground that way. He wheeled Trigger off to the left and took off.
Heyes and Clem took the road as far as it would go and then started to cut a trail up and over the mountain. Looking for old timbers, rails, anything that would suggest an old mine lay nearby. They searched for hours, all the while Clem peeking over her shoulder for an imagined cougar ready to pounce and dine.
Meanwhile, Curry had pushed Trigger as far as he dare go up and over the mountain. He had come to a rock wall and was deciding his next path, when he heard the snort of a horse. He looked around and didn’t see anyone or anything. Again the snort came and a few rocks came rolling down the face of the rock wall. He looked up to see Prancer’s shaking head sticking out of the rock face. “ Vic?”
“ Jed?”
“ How’d you get up there?”
“ Wasn’t easy.” Came the answer over the side of the rocks.
“ Can you get down?” Curry was searching for a way up.
“ Sure, I can get down; but I don’t think Prancer’s convinced.”
“ Prancer, “ The Kid sounded annoyed, “ get your butt down here or I’ll shoot you.” He couldn’t believe he was beginning to talk to the horses. He was pretty sure there was something funny in the Kentucky water, he just wasn’t sure what.
Prancer shook his head up and down vigorously and Curry saw him back up.
“ Well, that’s a little harsh.” Called Vic’s voice over the edge.

Off in the distance, Curry could here three shots and knew it was Heyes, signaling the end of the search for now. After half an hour, they all met back up where they had started. Heyes was shaking his head as he dismounted. “ It has to be right here, it just has to be.”
“ Well, maybe it is.” Vic said off-handedly as she dismounted. “ and we just can’t see it.”
Heyes and Curry looked at each other for a long moment, smiled and then said in unison, “ Let’s blow it up!”
Vic peeked around the side of her horse, “ Blow what up?”
Heyes pointed to the original site he had picked out. “ Maybe that’s just a hundred and fifty years worth of rock slide covering the entrance. We’ll blow a hole in it and see if anything’s behind it.”
Curry was already headed down to the campsite for some sticks of dynamite.
Vic looked scared as she addressed Heyes, “ and just who’s going to do this? How much do we use? What if it’s too much? What if it blows the top of the mountain down on us?”
“ Calm down,” Heyes put his hand on her shoulder, “ you’re looking at the master.” He assured her with a smile. “ You and Clem go back down to the campsite and wait for us there. It’ll be alright, I promise.”
She put her hand on his and gave it a little squeeze, “ We didn’t come this far to have you two blow yourselves off the side of a mountain, okay? I will be very angry if you do.”
Curry returned with the dynamite in his saddlebag and dismounted. “ You two take our horses and get back down to camp. You’ll hear three shots when it’s okay for you to come back.”
Vic just shook her head in disbelief and Curry handed her the Trigger’s reins and helped her mount up. “ It’ll be okay, Heyes is the master.” He assured her. She bent down and placed an urgent kiss on his lips.
“ C’mon Clem, lets go.” She walked Prancer slowly down the road, looking back the entire time until they were out of sight. They tied the horses on the tether rope and sat down at the back of the wagon with Ox and Nightlinger to wait. And wait. Vic wanted to pace, but Clem kept pulling her down to sit.
Clem patted her hand reassuringly, “ They’ll be fine.”
Vic just shook her head, “ I have the most overwhelming feeling that this is a big mistake.” She nearly jumped a mile when the blast went off. All she could hear was the pounding of her heart in her ears. Pounding so loud. She and Clem looked at one another. Then three shots rang out, and Vic was racing toward the horses, mounting up and grabbing Trigger’s reins. Clem wasn’t far behind. She thundered up the road to a settling dust cloud and rubble everywhere on the road. Prancer picked his way around debris until Heyes and Curry came into view. Laughing and covered with dust. She swung down from the horse and took off running until she reached Jed’s arms. He kissed her and swung her around. “ Go get some lanterns, you’ll never believe what we found!”
She sent Clem back to camp for them as soon as she came into view and tied the horses to a nearby bush. “ Show me.” She stated simply. Curry grabbed her hand and the trio went back up the road. Through the dust, she could see an opening. A manmade opening, tall enough and wide enough for a wagon to go through. She started screaming.

He heard the explosion in his head; he saw the mountain in his mind. He saw them happy, heard her scream. He growled and spurred the beast south. He was formulating his final plan. The souls around his neck held their mouths open in a silent scream.

Clem returned with four lanterns and they all mounted up to breech the mine. The horses picked through the rubble. The smell was indescribable. A mixture of gunpowder, stale air, old moisture, death, decay. The tunnel was wide enough for the riders to go two abreast; Curry and Heyes in front and Vic and Clem in behind. They held the lanterns high and walked the horses down a seemingly endless corridor. Soon they came upon two other passageways, one to the right, one to the left.
“ That what I was afraid of, “ Heyes’ voice echoed off of the stone walls. “ There could be dozens of passageways down here, and we are going to have to search them methodically. To make sure we don’t get lost and make sure we don’t miss anything.”
“ You’re right, let’s go back to camp and we’ll get a plan and start early in the morning.” Curry agreed.

The excitement was overwhelming, but Heyes had managed to focus everyone enough so that everyone knew what their job would be tomorrow. Heyes and Clem, Curry and Vic, Ox and Nightlinger; each pair would take a passageway and explore. Bundles of twine to lead them back and cans of paint to show where some had been. Vic had cooked a supper of beef stew, but no one seemed hungry. The Kid had the hardest time trying to get Vic bedded down for the night. No rock to perch on, she didn’t like the alignment of the stars from here, over there was better; she couldn’t find her dust, it was maddening. Heyes and Clem were still awake, Clem talking about what she would do if she were rich and Heyes wondering what it would be like to be free. Even the horses seemed restless on their tether line. Curry sat on the wide bedroll and took off his boots, “ C,mon, Vic.” He demanded.
“ Jed…”
“ No, I am not moving the bedroll again.”
She stood looking at him with her hands on her hips. “ Maybe we could clear out the wagon and sleep in there.”
“ Not gonna happen. Get over here.”
“ Yes, but things crawl…”
“ Maybe you’ll get lucky and there will only be things that hop. Now, Get…over…here.” The Kid insisted.
Clem and Heyes were giggling and Vic stubbornly marched over to the bed and sat down with her arms crossed on her chest. She threw off the blanket she had wrapped around her and scooted underneath the blanket next to Jed. He pulled her close to his chest and gave her a quick kiss. He settled his head down,” Now go to sleep.”
She lay there staring up at the stars, unable to go to sleep. She tossed. She turned. She got fussed at by the Kid, who was nearly asleep whenever she would move. She threw the covers off; she would scramble to cover herself back up again. “ Be still, or I will tie you down.” Came a gruff voice.
“Promises, promises.” She said flippantly.
He opened his eyes and a light went on in his head. They were in the middle of a human wagon circle, and it would be impossible to make love. Either that or she had insomnia. He preferred the first one. He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “ If you’ll settle down and get some sleep, I’ll wake you up in the middle of the night and we’ll go take a walk.”
“ There could be wild animals out there in the dark.” She whispered back.
“ I know, and one of them will rip your clothes off.”
She immediately settled against his chest and gave him a hug, “ Night.”
“ Thank God!”
“ What?”
“ I said, it’ll be good.”


Heyes banging on a pot, calling for breakfast, startled the Kid awake. Clem decided to cook their breakfast this morning since Vic had done the majority of cooking. Ox and Nightlinger were already at the wagon helping themselves to flapjacks. Vic was on her side, cuddled up with her arm and leg draped over him. Oh hell, I didn’t wake up last night. I’m dead. He tried to slip out from underneath her, but she started stretching and stirring with his movements. Run for it! Her eyes opened and she smiled when she saw him; then she started frowning. Let’s see. I heard a bear in the woods and didn’t want to chance it. That could work. She just stared at him. Just keep cool, think of it like a gunfight. Don’t show any fear. Wait for it.
Then she started giggling, “ We overslept.”
I love you. “Morning. Let’s go eat.” He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.
“ I smell something cooking.” Vic observed.
“ Yeah, I think it’s Clem.”
My dreams have come true! Vic rejoiced.
The Kid stood up to stretch. “ Yep, it’s flapjacks.”
Oh, well, I guess it was too much to hope for. We haven’t run out of food yet.