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 Bonus section - Yuma Part two continued .... finale

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Cal

Cal


Posts : 93
Join date : 2015-11-11

Bonus section - Yuma Part two continued .... finale Empty
20160424
PostBonus section - Yuma Part two continued .... finale

OK  - bonus section - this is the end of Episode Four - The final Episode! Calx

---oooOooo---
Yuma
by Cal
---oooOooo---

Episode four continued



---ooooooOoooooo---
Next Morning

Things don’t look so grim; they’ve got a bit of food.  They’ve found water.  The horses weren’t ever going to recover but at least they’d had a rest. Kid announces that now no one’s trailing them they can go shoot some game …ok a rabbit or a sage hen, but both boys are keen to see Kid shoot …anything.

Yes, the partners are feeling optimistic. The teenage boys, much more themselves again too… oh dear...

“Do you even know where we are?” asks Caleb, looking out across the vast, foreboding terrain laid out before them.

“Not like on a map or nothin’” says Heyes with a strained smile. “But Kid ‘n me, we can normally find our way around.  Soon as the horses are sound again, we’ll get you and Nat to a town somewheres, and telegraph Louise, and she can come pick you up.”

Caleb drops his head; I don’t think that’s what he wanted to hear.  “I can’t go back to the home…” He starts.  “Wasn’t your fault…” comforts Nathaniel putting a protective arm on Caleb’s shoulder.

The partners look at each other with alarm.  How have they let this fourteen-year-old go on carrying the guilt of thinking he’s killed someone for all this time.  They look suitably chastened.  Kid scrubs a gloved hand over his face, squeezing his eyes shut.  “Cain …I mean Caleb, you never…” he starts.

“Caleb,” Heyes fixes the lad with his dark eyed stare.  “We was in Benton.  We heard how that creep Hotel owner attacked your friend Josephine.  You did the only thing a man could’ve done …Same thing any of us would’ve done!” He waves a hand between himself and Kid.  The Kid nods enthusiastically. “But …and I’m sorry to have to tell you this …that creep lived.  You didn’t kill him…”
Curry’s changed to head shaking.

“I didn’t…” The relief on Caleb’s face was threatening to turn to tears, but his face screws up into anger “And just how long have you known that posse weren’t fixin’ to hang me!” He spits into their faces.  They don’t have an answer.  Heyes tries “We been a little busy…” Kid shoots him a glare that says ‘just shut up!’

“That old bastard ain’t dead! Well ain’t that a crying shame!” says Nathaniel matter of factly, which broke the tension enough for Caleb to wander off on his own for a bit.

---ooooooOoooooo---
Days later breaking camp

“I don’t think we should have taken that last pass, we should’ve stuck to the ridge and headed west…” opined Curry with a shake of the curls, “I think we could end up going round in circles this way.  Maybe…”

Nat, stood at his elbow and nodded. Nathaniel and Kid had been going off before breakfast to hunt together.  Nat was really enjoying this opportunity to hone his outdoor skills and Curry was a good teacher.  Caleb was happier sticking to camp and took great delight in baiting the genius.  

“Maybe …you should have said something earlier!” Heyes’ eyes narrowed and he was biting back what he would have liked to have said, if they weren’t in the company of the young’uns.  “All I said was this looked like it might be a decent trail…”

“Are we lost Mr Curry?” asked Caleb, enjoying winding Heyes up further.  

“No!…” Heyes starts.

“Yes…” Curry confirmed to a smiling Nathaniel.  “But it don’t mean much, this is more or less how me an’ Heyes get everywhere.  The Norths up that way, all we gotta do, is figure a way to get to there, from here.”

“Why we heading North, anyway? Don’t seem too bright to me.” Caleb opined staring up into Heyes’ face.  Kid and Nathaniel both raised questioning eyebrows to the genius scowling under the black hat.

“Oh really!” Heyes had had enough of being second guessed, bad enough when it was his partner but now it’s a half grown, know nothing, opinionated £$%^&**(&^%$£! kid questioning his every judgement. He grabs for Caleb by the shirt, but is knocked sideways by a flying Nathaniel come to his friend’s aid.  In a sprawling mass of arms and legs Heyes brawls on the floor with the two feral teens …while Curry watches, face wincing now and then …after several pretty good blows from a near out of control Caleb, Curry …slowly … takes out the Colt and shoots it into the sky.  

The combatants freeze.

“Glad you all got that outta yer systems…” opined the blue eyed one, taking in Heyes’ battered face and Nathaniel straining muscles, holding Caleb back.  He lifts the rim of his hat with the still smoking gun.

“Boys …mount up …we’re gonna do this my way…”

---ooooooOoooooo---
Several hours later

“How many did you see?” Heyes looked to the top of the nearest peak, then off to the far horizon, not wanting to believe what the boy had said.

“Just the one.” Nathaniel’s eyes were big as saucers. He didn’t say it out loud but he was thrilled that the Indian had looked just like himself. “I think he wanted me to see him.  He just, sort of, stood up and looked at me for a second.  I looked over my shoulder, to call you two, and when I looked back he was gone.”

“Heyes,” Curry did a good job of hiding the worry that his partner had seen spring up in the blue eyes just a moment ago. “A word.”

Kid jerked his head away from the two boys, back towards the bend they’d just rounded.  The partners walked back down the trail together, leaving the boys to hold their tired animals.

Heyes and Curry had been riding the weary horses for the last hour, while the boys walked ahead, but their feet were still sore because they’d been on foot themselves before that.  In fact all their feet were sore, their bellies were getting empty again and until Nathaniel had piped up that he’d seen an Indian, words had been very sparse since the brawl.

Cain scowled.  ‘Jail, then a posse that included those two detectives, now Indians,’ he thought.  ‘Or at least, one Indian.  What could the outlaws possibly have to discuss in private?  Accept, probably, how quickly they could ditch their two encumbrances and high tail it.’  He gave Nathaniel a reassuring pat, even though he had to stretch a bit to reach the taller boys shoulder.  He was the oldest after all, and Nat relied on him to do their thinking.  He stared off to where Heyes and Curry had their heads together, plotting.  “It’ll be fine” he reassured the younger boy.

Kid brought Heyes to a halt just passed the bend where he could look back and keep an eye on the boys.  “We know that they only show themselves when they’re fixing to make some sort of contact.  Do you think it’s possible, if Nat just saw one brave, that he could be out here on his own?  Maybe he needs help, or food, or something, and thought Nat looked the friendliest of us, being half-Indian himself.”   Kid knew this was rubbish, but he wanted to try and put a better spin on their present circumstances, for himself as much as anyone. Indians always made him …nervous.

“It’s the ‘or something’ that bothers me, Kid.  If that Indian’s had a good look at us, he’s got to know that the horses are near dead.  They weren’t in any shape when we first bought them, and we haven’t exactly given them an easy ride. I Don’t think they’d even make good eating anymore...” Heyes looked at his partner in earnest. “When you got a look at that map, back in Benton, did you see any Indian reservation land?”

“Yeah …Navajo I think …but that was a long way North, we couldn’t have come that far North?” Kid looked around as if seeing this scruffy mountain range for the first time.  “Sure, we covered some ground losing that posse, but on those horses? Riding double?  No …we couldn’t be that far North, I’m sure of it.”  

Kid nodded.  

     Heyes nodded.  

           Maybe, if they nodded hard enough, they could make it true.

“Well, we’ll just ask the boys to keep an eye out for any more Indians, and hope that Nat has just seen some youngster wandering off the reservation…”

Heyes had started back towards the boys, putting an optimistic smile on his battered face as he approached.  “Don’t think we got anything to worry about boys, probably just some young brave wandering off the reservation, looking to share a meal or something…” He nodded sagely at the boys, but the boys weren’t looking at him.

“You just let us know if you see any more Indians, Ok Nat?” Curry was on Heyes’ shoulder with a warm ‘I’m not worried at all’ smile plastered on his face.  “Not all Indians are savages you know; we’ve met some pretty decent ones…”

Curry’s pep talk came to a faltering halt as he watched awe arising on the faces of the weary, teenagers.  They stood, with their mouths agape, eyes wide, frozen to the spot.  The two ex-outlaws studied the boys, wondering if their past Indian-related exploits had impressed them in some way, but then noticed that the boy’s attention was very much drawn, to something behind themselves.  

Nathaniel lifted a weak arm to point, but no words escaped his lips.  

The partners looked at each other for just a second.  A ‘maybe we were wrong’ message sent between blue eyes and brown, lumps in throats were swallowed. They turned in synchro, instinctively raising their hands as they came round to face what looked like a hundred Navajo braves, and maybe worse, a dozen pointing rifles.

Both ex-outlaw faces were a rictus of teeth, as huge smiles sprang up between their ears, in an effort to appear friendly. In short order they were prodded to the ground, their guns removed from their holsters and their hands tied behind their backs.

Heyes started greeting their captors with friendly banter and polite enquiries as to the nature of their captivity.  This got him hit across the back of the head with the butt of a nearby rifle, and the swearing, issuing from the Kid at this ill treatment of his already battered partner, earned him a matching concussion.

Cain shook his head in disbelief. ‘Unbelievable. How had Heyes and Curry survived all these years?’ he thought.  He raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders at Nathaniel.

Nathaniel was smiling at the same brave he’d seen earlier.  Seemed Nat had made a friend, they were about the same age and looked very alike.
 
In perfect Spanish, fourteen-year-old Caleb greeted the band of braves and, after some initial introductions, rapidly ascertained if they could get help with directions, and whether or not they had any food or water to share.  

He also managed to convince the hunting party that, he and Nat, weren’t actually prisoners of Heyes and Curry…. whatever it looked like….
---ooooooOoooooo---

The next day on the Navajo Reservation

“I’d just like to remind you…” Heyes began to lecture Kid.  

“I know! It wasn’t your idea.  How was I supposed to know we were in Indian country?” Curry pulled at the bonds around his wrists as he sat back to back with Heyes in the tepee. They both sported bandages …well their own dirty bandanas …round their heads holding strong smelling poultices over the goose eggs that had come up while they were out cold.  “If they’ve harmed those boys…”

“You’ll what?  They got our guns…”  Heyes was feeling quite calm, even a little smug, because none of this was his fault.  “Anyway, Nathaniel’s practically one of them …they’re probably doing a better job of mindin’ the boys than we did.”

“What?!?” Kids eyes are wide in incredulity. ” Mindin’ the boys! Do you think this is what Jenny and Louise were thinkin’ when they sent us off after their boys?  Break them out of jail, get them chased by a posse, lost in the mountains and now captured by Indians! I’m beginning to think we should take the boys to Devils Hole to become outlaws, ‘cause when Jenny finds out how we been mindin’ her boys …no amnesty’s gonna save us!”

The flap of the tepee opened and the two lads walk in followed by two very impressive braves.  

“Turns out, Nathaniel’s mother was a chief’s daughter!” Caleb sounded excited and happy for once, first time in weeks.  “They recognised her in him, straight away.  He’s got loads of family here. We would have come and got you sooner, but Nat’s granddaddy wanted to do this greeting ritual thing, and there was dancing, and drumming and Nat had to say these Navajo words and I had to translate…”

The partners had never heard Caleb run off at the mouth like this.  Kid rolled his eyes. Seemed familiar.

“You speak Navajo?” asked Heyes.

“Not a lot …but my Mexican’s better …Anyway …they want Nathaniel to have this naming ceremony and take his place…”

“And truth is …we forgot you was still here…” said a beaming Nathaniel rather sheepishly, riding over Caleb’s words.  “But there’s plenty of food left …and the Chief wants to hear Cain’s Hiawatha-in’ again …so we gotta go...”

“Desatarse por favour” Cain called to the braves as he turned to leave.  The braves quickly untied the partners, who stood up stretching and rubbing at their wrists.

“Well, Nat’s the chief’s grandson,” beamed Heyes with ‘knew this would be fine’ smugness.

“Funny that, ain’t it Heyes, how sometimes you can see a parent in a child that way?” Kids eyes went wide as he looked from Heyes to the flap just falling behind Caleb.

Heyes’ smug grin melts to worry.  Perhaps that was a conversation for another time.

---ooooooOoooooo---

On the reservation
Several days later


“Now you’re sure this is what you want, Nat?” Curry fixes this kid he’s become very fond of, with a fatherly gaze.  “I know this is exciting, but these people are very different from us.  It’s going to be hard for you to fit in and it’s going to be even harder for us to leave you here. Especially for Cain …Caleb”

“I don’t think he minds being called Cain again now Mr Curry.  Now he knows he ain’t a murderer like in the bible. But I ain’t Nat any more, I’m Bidziil.  It means ‘the strong one’, and it’s the name given to me by my grandfather, my family.”

Nat can’t stop smiling.  

“And your wrong Mr Curry, these people are just like me.  They look like me, for the first time I won’t look different.  And here, I’m a grown up and a chief’s grandson.  Back there, I’m just another orphan.  You won’t understand this, but for an orphan, to suddenly find I got so much family.”  

Kid bit his lip, and swallowed the lump in his throat.  

“They came looking for me you know? …When my mother died …They were told I died too ...It near broke him that they put my mother in a hole in the ground…”  

Nathaniel’s smile faltered just a bit, but he caught himself and stood tall and proud.  He’d already adopted the Indian dress.  

“Now Bidziil, if you’re a grown up now, I think you can call me Jed, don’t you?” smiled Curry at the young man stood in front of him.  He offered a hand to shake.  

Bidziil grasped the hand of the fastest gun in the West and his childhood hero, and made a heartfelt request, “Jed.  Jed …will you see Cain gets back to Yuma.  He’s real smart …He could be a lawyer or a doctor or anything he puts that big brain o’ his to, but …he’s got this temper…gets him into trouble …and I won’t be there to watch his back…”

Kids head dropped, so he could hide the rueful smile.

---ooooooOoooooo---

A week later
Camp fire, out in the hills above a small town called Ratchet, a hundred miles north east of Yuma.


“Your very quiet Cale…Cain? You missing Nat…Bidziil?” Curry passes the biscuits.  Heyes has been into town on his own, to telegraph Jenny and Louise, and Lom, and has picked up some supplies. The fresh coffee and a few other comfits, have made this campfire gathering a more cheerful prospect than of late.

“Yeah …a little I guess.  I’m real glad he found his folks though.  And his granddaddy said I could go visit anytime…”  Cain’s head dropped again and his words drifted to nothing.   Kid kicked Heyes foot and sent him a ‘Go on, tell him!’ encouraging nod.

“Errm….Caleb … Cain? There’s something the Kid and me want to tell you…” Began the owner of a silver tongue, that looked like it had deserted him.  It’s about your father …from Wyoming…”

“It’s you ain’t it …and you’re never gonna own me …cause you’re Hannibal Heyes…” mumbled Cain to his own shoes.

“No!” spat out Heyes too eagerly.

Cain’s head shot up, “No?” he shouted too relieved and smiling.

They both looked uncomfortable.

Kid rolled his eyes; his partner looked offended, and so did Cain!  “This Johansen that ran the home before Jenny and Louise, did he have a nick name …you know like me?” he asked.

Cain smirked “Yeah …We called him ‘Fancy Hanson’ …but only behind his back ‘course.”

Heyes smiled and Kid laughed. “That’s him. Old Fancy.”

“When we first laid eyes on you in that cell in Gela… Well there weren’t any doubt in our minds.  You look the spit of your father.  You couldn’t be anyone else’s son.  And well now you told us about Fancy; we think we gotta be right.” Heyes is smiling at Cain too, seems he’s got over the sleight to his parenting. “See, your father had a partner called Fancy Hansen …we thought he’d been shot ‘cause this one time he didn’t come back to the Hole …oh this is long before we ran things …But seems he was in Yuma …running a Boys Home.”

Curry shook his head at his silver-tongued partner.

“What Heyes is trying to tell you, Cain, is that we think your father is our friend Preacher.”  

Cain wasn’t saying anything; he was wide eyed listening carefully.  

“See it would fit, cause Preacher’s real name is Adam, Adam Donner.  See an Adam would name his sons Cain and Abel.  Especially the Preacher, why he can quote tracts from the bible, and he’s real smart like you, quotin’ all that poetry just the same …see…”

Heyes took over.

“He’s a doctor of divinity, got himself a proper education.  He wasn’t always an outlaw.  Him and Fancy were fond of the drink…”  

Heyes stopped under a calming hand from Kid on his arm.  Cain needed a turn.  

“So that would make me Cain Donner? And Abel’s my brother? And Abel and this Preacher are my family?” Cain was looking happier now, almost had tears in his eyes, but no fourteen-year-old boy would want me to tell you that.

“Could be, could be…” Kid smiled. “’Course the only way to know for sure, is to ask the Preacher.”

“Yeah …I got me a lot of questions for this Preacher …like why he didn’t own me …us …if’n he’s supposed to be a man of the cloth…” Cain’s temper was starting to rise.

“You think about that for a minute Cain.” Heyes fixes the lad with a cool look, his voice a low rasp.  “Preacher is a known Outlaw and member of the Devils Hole Gang …what could he have offered you?  But he got you to Yuma, safe …had Fancy take care of you …from what I heard old Fancy looked after the boys up at the Hole like an old mother hen …even did their sewing!”  

Heyes and Kid laughed, lightening the mood. It worked.

“You liked Fancy didn’t yer?” said Kid. “Didn’t think much to his replacements, Huh!”

“Yeah Old Fancy was great …He didn’t mind if you didn’t wash too much…Never asked where you’d been…”  Cain laughed, “Oh, I knew Jenny and Louise weren’t all bad …and the food certainly improved …but Josephine’s dad was gonna send her back East, and she was real upset about it…”  

Thoughts of Josephine transformed Cain’s face into a puppy dogs.  He drifted into a private dream.  The two ex-outlaws dropped their heads to their coffees, trying to hide the broad smiles on their faces.

---ooooooOoooooo---

Next day: Ratchet

“You just keep smiling Heyes, I’ll just keep taking care of business.  The business of keeping both of us outta jail.”  Curry pushes Heyes and Cain against the side wall of the Hotel as he peers round the corner into the street.

“Grant will have told the agency, that we were last seen heading North to Devils Hole, with our latest recruits.  All those Bannerman agents will be miles away from here by now!” Heyes is rolling his eyes at Cain, who is so used to the partners by now, he just shakes his head and smiles.

“If Gaines wired the Agency, that we were on the gold train, then every Bannerman agent that was on that train, now knows what we look like.  I got a pretty good look at all of them too, so just hush up and let me check…” Kid cranes his neck in the other direction.

“Get your hands up!” comes a commanding voice from behind Heyes and Cain, who are both so startled they fall into Kids back and they all fall into the street in a swarm of arms and legs.

Loud snorting laughter, punctuated with ‘hics‘ and porcine grunts, comes from the alley.  As the boys straighten themselves out and stand up, vaguely raising their hands, the laughter gets louder and louder, till a near doubled up Harry Briscoe, waving his two pistols, emerges from the alley.

“Harry!” shout the boys together.

Harry can’t speak, I don’t mind telling you he had tears in his eyes, he is poleaxed with laughter.  

Heyes drops his hands; they find his hips and he screws up his face in chagrin, “What are you doin’ here Harry.  And that was real stupid by the way …’cause the Kid here could ‘ve killed you!”  The Kid looked a bit sheepish, he’d been on the bottom of the pile.  

Cain was looking at the three men in turn; I think he’s wondering if he’s the grown up.  Kid takes charge and bundles them all into a saloon.  Cain can’t believe his luck, till a glass of milk is placed in front of him. The others get beer.

“I’m working for Josephine’s uncle again.” Explains Harry. “He sent me to look for young Cain here” Harry fixes the youngster with a smile he saves for babies and old ladies. “And here he is safe and sound.”

“Yeah! ‘Cause we found him!” Heyes waves a gloved finger between himself and Kid. “WE busted him out of jail, WE saved him from a posse, WE rescued him from Indians…”  Cain makes to protest, but is silenced by a Curry gloved hand placed heavily on his arm.  “And YOU wouldn’t be here now, if Louise hadn’t told you where to find us, because WE sent her a telegram would you Harry?”

“Well boys …shall we call it a hundred dollars’ finder’s fee?” Harry smiles.

“Two hundred” states Heyes.

“Apiece!” states Curry.

Harry counts out the money.

Cain smiles, he’s catching on. “You’re a real detective …and you know who these two are?” asks Cain quietly.

“Why these boys have helped crack some of my biggest cases…” started Harry.

“So the Governor really has promised you amnesty….” Cain finds Curry’s hand across his mouth. “Will you just shut up ….and drink yer milk!” he admonishes.

They all take a long drink.  

“Why does the uncle want you to find Cain, Harry?” asks Curry, lifting his beer to toast their earnings, with Heyes.

“Well, he heard what this fine young man did, coming to the rescue of his wife’s niece that way, saving her respectability, as it were …well I think he’s keen to thank him in some way.” Harry slaps Cain on the back and into his milk.

Cain sputters, eyes watering …only a bit of course.

“Well now, Harry…” Heyes fishes into his jacket, “Why don’t you show him this, I saw it in a newspaper a week or so back.  It’s a scholarship to a fine school, not far from Carson City, might be a fitting thank you for a bright boy like our Cain here.”

“Carson City, Heyes,” smiled Curry “Isn’t that close to where Josephine was headed?”.

“OH …I think it just might be.” Confirmed Heyes with a twinkle in his dark eyes, dimple set to full.

Cain, wiping milk off his top lip, beams a huge joyful smile.

---ooooooOoooooo---

Ratchet Train Station Platform
Harry and Cain are boarding a train to Yuma


Curry is shaking the youngsters hand.  Heyes pats him on the back and hands him a letter.

“Give this to Jenny for us.  I’ve tried to explain about Nat …Bidziil …but I wouldn’t be around when she opens it.”  Both partners shake their heads with ‘really, don’t be there’ looks in their eyes.

“You’re welcome any time in Carson City Boys” smiles Harry “Though, of course, I’m spending a lot of my time in Yuma …these days…” He’s just bursting to share his news with the boys.  Heyes keeps him hanging there for just a little while, enjoying the joke with Kid, till he sees the train start to move, then, raising his eyebrows he makes the smallest of enquiries towards Harry, “mmm?”

“Miss Louise Carson has agreed to walk out with me!” bursts Harry, eyes twinkling with pride.

“Hah!” explodes Kid “That’s just fine Harry …just fine!”

Heyes beams his assent and the boys wave off the train as they see Harry and Cain slip inside the last carriage.
train

THE END


Last edited by Cal on Sat 21 May 2016, 12:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bonus section - Yuma Part two continued .... finale :: Comments

Penski
Re: Bonus section - Yuma Part two continued .... finale
Post Fri 29 Apr 2016, 12:08 am by Penski
Wonderful story, Cal! Loved seeing Harry, Jenny, and Louise again. You had me going on the father, you rascal! Loved how you resolved it all, too, at the end. goodone
 

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