Chapter Text
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Title: The Devill and The Deep Blue Sea
Thanks to my Beta Lyn
Chapter One
Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry seemed right at home playing poker in the only saloon of the small but growing town of, ‘Catfish Creek’. The two reformed out laws were eyeing the ongoing poker stakes. The three local players were good enough at the game to keep it interesting but bad enough so that Heyes and Curry were on a winning streak. What both the outlaws liked about this particular game was the way in which the losing players accepted their losses with good humour. Heyes and Curry had been in ‘Catfish Creek’ for a day and intended to spend another few days there. The town had the happy distinction of having a Sheriff whom neither of the boys knew. It was a growing town with plenty of building going on since the railroad had come and it had a reasonably good stage coach service too. All in all, it was a town that was easy to leave in a hurry, which appealed to the boys. It was surrounded by cattle country and the town had an air of good fortune about it. Heyes and Curry were relaxed, well at least as relaxed as two wanted men could be.
A cowboy entered the saloon and made straight for the bar. He looked around the noisy room as he drank his rot gut whisky. It was a busy saloon on a Friday night. He was deciding whether he could afford to take Louann, the prettiest saloon girl, up stairs or whether he might try his luck at a poker game. He concentrated on the ongoing game and recognized two of the players who played there regularly. His gaze strayed over the rest of the table and he turned away quickly as he spotted Heyes’s dark hair. The cowboy gulped his whisky and took another look at the table. He was right; Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry were playing poker at the table. His first thought was how he could get the drop on them and his next one was how he’d spend the reward. Why they must be worth five or ten thousand each? That was more money than he’d seen in his whole life. The cowboy’s name was Caleb Hennessey. He was about thirty, clean shaven with green eyes that always seemed to be looking in two directions at once. His hair was light brown and slicked into place. He was a most unremarkable young man, someone who caused no chance for a second glance and that’s why Curry and Heyes dismissed him without a second glance.
Hennessey was working on a large ranch about three miles out of town. He wasn’t cut out for the life of a working cow poke and he knew it. He watched the two men at the poker table and ordered a beer. His thoughts were chaotic. By the time he’d finished the beer he had thought it all out. He knew the foreman on the ranch where he worked was a smart fella by the name of Larry Rafferty and Caleb decided then and there to take his problem to him. It would mean splitting the reward but half of something was better than all of nothing and that was the way he reasoned it.
The poker game folded soon after Hennessey’s departure. Heyes and Curry enjoyed a whisky nightcap together and returned to their hotel room in good spirits. Hennessey rode back to the ranch with his thoughts racing. He knew Rafferty was a clever man so he knew splitting the reward on Heyes and Curry made sense. The foreman’s cabin was in darkness as Caleb rode in. He took care of his horse and then rapped on Rafferty’s window. There was light in the bunkhouse, which meant some of the other cowpokes were still up. Hennessey would have to be quiet so as not to disturb them. The less people who knew about Heyes and Curry the better.
Hennessey had to rap a few more times to wake Rafferty. The foreman spat out, “All right, all right I’m coming and this better be urgent.” The light went on in his small cabin and he opened the door in his not so white long johns.
“Hennessey, what the hell do you want?”
Hennessey stepped into the cabin uninvited.
“Larry, we’ve got to talk, I need your advice on something real serious.” The words tumbled from Hennessey’s mouth. Rafferty tried to interject but was stilled by a wave of Hennessy’s hand. All the foreman could say was,“This better be real good.” Hennessy continued on. “I’ve just seen Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry playing poker in the saloon.”
Rafferty’s shock registered in his grey eyes. Rafferty was older than Hennessy, up around his late forties and he was completely bald. He was an imposing man who stood over six feet tall. “You know these fellas, huh?” he asked Hennessy.
“Yeah, I know them. A few years back I was in a town they hurrahed. I’ll never forget them. I was drinking in a saloon where they were playing poker and something happened at the table. One young cowpoke said that Heyes was cheating and Heyes tried to talk him down. I ain’t ever heard a man talk so calm and when the cowpoke wouldn’t back down he went for his gun and Heyes sat there calmly and Curry pulled his gun. I ain’t never seen anyone that fast. Curry didn’t shoot him, he didn’t have to. The guy just got the money that was in front of him and left. After he’d gone, Heyes ordered drinks for everybody. Those boys were sure admired in the town. They’d rob a train or a bank and come down from ‘Devil’s Hole’ and splash the money around ‘till it was gone. No Sir! I’ll never forget Heyes and Curry.”
“All right, you’ve convinced me. What’s the reward on them?”
“I don’t know but I heard it was five thousand, maybe it’s more now.”
“Well tomorrow morning you find out what they’re worth when we take a little trip into town.”
“I just don’t know how we’re going to get the drop on them.” hissed Hennessy.
“Leave the plannin’ to me.” And with that Rafferty pointed to the door and Hennessey left
. Hennessey tossed and turned in his bunk. He just couldn’t get Heyes and Curry out of his mind. How much money were they worth? It was nigh on for first light by the time he finally settled. Rafferty, on the other hand sat up for an hour or more, slowly sipping a large glass of whisky, while he planned out his future, and for the first time in a very long while, it looked promising. Satisfied with his musings he downed the last of the whisky and went to bed.
Rafferty called Hennessy over at breakfast time while the rest of the cowpokes ate at the long trestle table, which stood in the center of the bunk house.” Caleb, I need you to come to town with me.” Rafferty ordered.
Within ten minutes the two cowboys were on their way to town. Rafferty had it all planned out and he filled Hennessey in on what he wanted him to do. Rafferty was, by nature, a silent type of man and Hennessey’s chatter irritated him on the short ride. They parted ways as soon as the reached town; Hennessey headed to the Sheriff’s office while Rafferty went calling on a friend of his, who just happened to work in Catfish Creek’s one and only bank.
Forty minutes later the cowboys met in ‘Jean’s Restaurant’. It was one of only two eating establishments in the town and it was always pretty busy. They found a table at the back wall and ordered coffee, bacon and biscuits. Rafferty stilled Hennessey’s talk when the middle- aged waitress brought their food to the table and once she had walked away, he asked
“Caleb, did you find out what the reward was on them?”
“Yes siree and I was discreet just like you told me. I chatted to old deputy Hailey and I got him talking about rewards and wanted posters. Why it wasn’t more than a few minutes before he had a whole bunch of them posters out and we was looking through them. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I spotted Heyes and Curry. They’re worth ten thousand dollars a piece.” Hennessey’s voice had risen as he announced this to Rafferty, who at once silenced him with a look.
“We have to be careful, Caleb but you did real well.” Rafferty took a large mouthful of coffee and waved his empty cup to the waitress for a refill. He remained silent until there was once more coffee in his cup. Hennessey waved the woman away impatiently when she went to refill his cup too.
Hennessey’s eyes glowed with anticipation and he rubbed his hand up and down his thigh, smoothing out the creases in his denim pants as he moved. He stilled his hand when Rafferty began to talk.
“Let’s get out of here and talk on the way back to the ranch.” He gulped down his coffee and threw a dollar bill on the table. Both men walked out into the sunshine and made their way to where their horses were tethered and rode out of town.
Rafferty waited until they were they were clear of the town then began to speak.
“Caleb, we have a chance here to make a fortune.”
“Yeah, twenty thousand dollars is a whole lot of money.”
“Not twenty thousand” interjected Rafferty. “Nearer to seventy.” He silenced Hennessey with a wave of his hand and carried on. “The bank got a new safe installed last week for a reason, a real good reason. There’s a payroll coming in two days time and it’s worth about fifty thousand dollars. Turns out there’s a lot of railroad employees need paying and the railroad is buying up land all around the area and their lawyers need the ready cash to buy out landowners.”
“But how are we going to get our hands on that money?” Hennessey interrupted.
“Caleb, Hannibal Heyes is the best safecracker there ever was.” Seeing the blank look on his companion’s face he hurried on. “We grab Curry then use him as leverage to get Heyes to rob the safe. After we get our hands on the money we kill both of them. You ride in and tell the sheriff how it’s just come back to you who those two men playing poker in the saloon were and they’ll send out a posse. We’ll just happen to find the two dead outlaws and we’ll tell everyone they were dead when we found them. The bank will figure that Heyes and Curry were killed by their own gang so we’ll end up with the reward for them. We just sit quiet for a few weeks then we leave and start our new lives.” Rafferty smiled at Hennessey.
“Hold on just a darn minute, I ain’t ever killed anybody and I don’t figure to start now.” Hennessey reined in his horse and stopped.
Rafferty stopped beside him and turned in his saddle so that he was almost on top of Hennessey. “It ain’t gonna work any other way. I’ve thought it all through. We can’t get the drop on both of them but if we take Curry then from what I’ve heard of them two fellas there ain’t no way Heyes won’t open that safe and get the money. Just think of what we could do with seventy thousand dollars, Caleb?”
“Why do we have to kill them?”
“Well, we can’t just turn them in after Heyes has robbed the safe and we can’t let them go, because I don’t want Kid Curry on my trail, do you?”
“No. But I can’t see why we can’t just get the reward for them, twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money, Larry, more than I’ve ever seen in my life?”
“Ten thousand dollars a piece might set us up, and if we were lucky it would last but just think of all that railroad money.”
“Well why can’t we just get Heyes to get the bank money then let him and Curry go?”
“I don’t want Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry on my trail. .Be reasonable, Caleb. This is the only way to do it.”
Hennessey thought about it for a few minutes, saying nothing, just looking into the distance. “How would we get the drop on them?” he asked tentatively.
“I have it all worked out. We watch them until we see a chance to grab Curry. They can’t spend all their time together then we get that saloon gal, Luann, to take a message to Heyes telling him we have his partner. Heyes won’t touch Luann because he’ll be afraid we’ll kill his partner. I’ll meet up with him and show him Curry’s gun just to prove we have him. We’ll use Luann as the go between.”
“But Luann could go to the sheriff and claim the reward on Heyes and Curry herself.” “I don’t think that pompous sheriff is going to take the word of a saloon gal and Luann will know that. No. She’ll work out just fine. We’ll promise her a thousand dollars and we’ll give it to her.” Rafferty waited for Hennessey’s reaction.
Hennessey didn’t say anything, as if he was weighting it all up. After a minute he spurred his horse on and Rafferty did the same. They rode in silence for a mile then Hennessey said “You have it all planned out, Larry, and forty five thousand is a lot of money. I could go to San Francisco or maybe New York, I ain’t ever seen a big city, and with that kind of money I could live the high life. Maybe killing them two outlaws would be a public service, after all they’re wanted ‘dead or alive’.”
Rafferty smiled. It was amazing how money could change a man’s mind about almost anything. They rode on in silence. Hennessey made peace with himself and his future actions and Rafferty finalized his plans.