SnowA bounty hunter is after Heyes and Curry. So why are they taking the time to make snowmen?
“Are you sure it’s the Larson brothers?” Kid asked as Heyes looked through the binoculars.
Focusing in on the pair of men who had gotten off their horses and checking the tracks in the snow, Heyes replied, “Yep, it’s them all right.”
“Damn, we would have them on our trail when there nothin’ for miles.”
“They’re not known to take prisoners, either.”
“So what’s your plan to get us outta this mess?”
“Not sure yet. Let’s get a few more miles between them and us.” Heyes mounted his mare and loped away with Curry following.
Several miles further and they stopped to check the bounty hunters progress.
“Darn snow’s not helpin’ us none.”
Watching the Larsons fan out to look for their tracks, Heyes turned to look at the Kid. “I think I’ve got an idea. But you’re not going to like it.”
“Yeah? Is it going to work?”
Heyes shrugged and admitted reluctantly, “I don’t know.”
“You’re right. I don’t like it.”
Dusk was settling in when Heyes and the Kid lit a fire and checked “their” camp site.
“Hate losin’ my blanket and hat,” Kid lamented as he mounted his gelding. “Sure hope this works.”
“Rather lose your hat or your life?”
Pretending to think about that for a minute, Curry answered, “Yeah, well, if you put it that way.”
“’Sides, once we lose the Larsons, we can hopefully backtrack and get our stuff.” Heyes took a branch and swished it along the snow wiping away their tracks for a hundred feet before getting on his mare. “Now we separate…”
“And meet up in Black Creek in two days. Yeah, I know, and I don’t like it.”
“Can’t be avoided, Kid.”
“I know, but bad things happen when we separate.”
“And a really bad thing can happen if the Larsons catch up with us.”
Heyes extended his arm and the Kid did the same. After shaking hands, Curry warned, “Be careful, Heyes. I’m not gonna be there to watch your back.”
Heyes grinned. “You, too. See you in Black Creek.”
Several days later in Black Creek…
Kid Curry sat in the back of a bar nursing a drink. A young blonde in a sapphire dress with a tight bodice sauntered up to him. “Buy a girl a drink?”
Kid looked up and forced a smile. “Maybe later.”
“Waitin’ for someone, huh?”
“Sure am,” he said as she walked away. In a barely audible whisper he added, “Where are ya, Heyes? Supposed to be here yesterday.”
Another hour and another drink went by when a grinning Heyes walked up and threw a brown hat on the table. “Buy a fella a drink?” he asked.
“Heyes…” In a much quieter voice, “Heyes, where in the hell have you been? You’re late!”
Heyes frowned. “What kind of welcome and thanks is that?”
“The kind you get for bein’ late!”
“Were you worried about me?”
“You know I was, just like you’d be worried if I was late with the Larson brothers around.”
Immediately contrite, Heyes sat down and filled the Kid’s glass with the bottle on the table and drank from it. “Guess you’re right.”
“You know I am. Where’ve you been? And how’d you get my hat?”
Heyes smiled again so both dimples showed. “After we split, well, I just had to see if my plan would work so I…”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t make a wide loop and go back to watch.” Kid closed his eyes and rested his head in his hand.
“Okay, I won’t tell you, but I tied the horse down by the creek we crossed and crept to the boulders by the camp site.”
“Heyes, I can’t believe you did that! How stupid… You could’ve been seen and caught!”
The other man frowned. “Do you want to hear what happened or not?”
Kid waved a hand to continue.
“Well, the Larson brothers snuck up to the camp site about an hour later. A lot slower than I thought they’d be… Anyway, they were about twenty feet from me talking about ambushing us. And they did just that. They made sure their guns were loaded and jumped up to surprise us. Shot us several times.” Heyes chuckled and had another drink. “You should’ve seen their faces when they pulled off the hats and blankets!”
Kid closed his eyes and shook his head.
“Guess you had to be there, Kid. Anyway, later they found where we split. After some cussing and blaming each other, they realized it was snowing again and the tracks were quickly covering up. Gave up and left.”
“So you got the hats and blankets and came back.”
“Well, yeah, after waiting some time to make sure they were gone.”
“Heyes, you could’ve gotten yourself killed! What were you thinkin’?”
“Just want to make sure you got your hat back, Kid. Sheesh, you’re being proddy.”
“I’m not…bein’ proddy!” Kid’s voice started loud and quickly became quieter. “And you didn’t care one lick for gettin’ me back my hat. You were too darn curious about if your plan would work or not.” He glared at his partner and dared him to disagree.
“Well, maybe that, too.”
“And ‘member what you read me from that book about nothin’?”
“Book about nothing?”
“From that old English writer. Don’t know why you like readin’ that so much.”
“You mean William Shakespeare?”
“Yeah, and his book about nothin’.”
“Much Ado About Nothing.”
“That’s what I said.”
Heyes looked puzzled. “What about that book?”
“Care killed a cat. And you said care was same as bein’ too curious.”
“Oh, now I see where you’re going with this.”
“And what about our blankets?”
“What about ‘em?”
Kid let out a deep breath of frustration. “Suppose they’re full of holes.”
“Nah, not full of holes… just six.”
At a loss for words, the Kid stared at his partner. Then he shook his head. “Heyes?”
“Yeah?”
“The next time you say you’ve got an idea an’ that I won’t like it?”
“Yeah...” Heyes said cautiously.
“I think I’ll try a little harder to talk you out of it.”
