INFAMY

Beware the fury of a patient man.

-

John Dryden

LEADVILLE, COLORADO

OCTOBER 1879

Heyes speaking…

Kid saw him first, but then Kid can spot where lightning is gonna hit even before the clouds form. But it said much he could make out anything as we stood in the doorway of the saloon with its smoke and overflowing refuge. Leadville had six saloons back then and enough miners to keep them all filled to capacity and groaning under the assault, but the Silver Queen was the biggest and brightest. The law was not an issue here; the last attempt at it still warm at the undertakers and with no takers vying to be his replacement we moved freely without concern of wants or warrants.

Of course that still left men eager to cash in on the bounty on Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes, which had just risen to $10,000, which explained Kid’s natural cautiousness and flat out paranoia sometimes. Rarely will he let me get in a door ahead of him and if I do, as I had this evening, I will suddenly find myself behind him. It’s annoying as hell and has saved my life at least six or seven times so I don’t complain too much.

Narrowing my eyes I followed his nudge and gaze over to a table under the stairs and had to squint harder to make out the four men there, but when I did I felt a knot twist to life in my stomach.

It had been 15 years, but suddenly it was yesterday.

****************************

LAWRENCE, KANSAS

AUGUST 14, 1864

It says much for my natural conceit when I write how little the war affected me up to that point. True my parents did their best to keep me sheltered from the more chilling aspects, but for the most part the soldiers that crossed our paths only enhanced our play.

Both colors over ran our world in those days and to be honest I couldn’t see much difference between the Grays and the Blues no matter how much my father lectured. I was just a boy intrigued by cannons and guns and battle and the men, many of them older brothers and father and weary of death found the time to enthrall a couple of boys with stories.

I never once felt in danger from any of them. Jed said the same thing, though he admitted he had stopped telling his mother about our encounters as it made her cry. My mother would just get angry and chop vegetables furiously going on in her melodic Irish brogue about the foolhardiness of brothers fighting brothers.

But as for Jed and me we weren’t afraid of either side and often shared our lunch with soldiers not much older than I was. Me talking about the battles they had seen and Jed being allowed to examine their guns.

All that changed that stormy hot Friday. Storm coming on, bad one and the air was charged and hung heavy and we both felt uneasy as we hurried back from fishing.

They came from out of nowhere and my first thought was they were pirates. Their leader sure looked like one with his three corner hat and dark clothes too big for his skeleton frame. He had a beard overgrown and wide and a saber and wore three guns and picked up Jed with one hand and held him up like he was gonna eat him.

I guess I pulled free of the man who grabbed me cause I hit the man holding Jed at the knees and began pummeling him to let Jed down. Jed tends to get mad first and afraid later, which I always thought was kind of useful, but as he hung their swinging wildly I figured it best to get him down before the pirate took a bite out of him.

The man laughed as I was pulled off him and he dropped Jed to stare down at me.

“Scrappy little thing aren’t you boy, whose side?”

We had learned early on to switch loyalty to whomever we were visiting with, just seemed polite, but this ragged tagged group of perhaps twenty men and boys didn’t offer any clear indication of allegiance. Like I said pirates seemed to fit best of all.

I straightened up and looked the man straight in the eye. I had recently taken up spitting, having learned it from a giant Irish Union Sergeant and so I threw that in as well as I thought it made me look tougher. “Only is one side,” I said with all the swagger I had in me.

This made the man roar with laughter until a boy not much older than me ran up with a telegram and handed it to him.

He read it and I swear it was like his eyes bulged out of his head and his mouth began to froth and I took a step back in fear.

“Bastards!” he roared and swung his arm out clipping me on the ear with a force that knocked me out cold and I collapsed like I was dead.

***************************

Kid speaking…

I swear I thought he was dead. Even back then Heyes could talk circles around anyone. I learned real quick to just smile and nod and even cry on cue to back up whatever tale he was telling. But this time, this time I knew we were in trouble. My grandpa said you could smell madness on a man and this one reeked of it.

When he hit Heyes I thought he’d killed him and ran over and fell on him begging him to wake up. The boy who brought the message asked what to do with us and the man turned from his raving and stared long and hard at me.

“Who your daddy fight for boy?” he yelled pulling out a hatchet.

I stood my ground. I didn’t lie as well as Heyes and at that moment I didn’t want to.

“The blue,” I said and narrowed my eyes staring into his.

He let out a roar and raised the hatchet as if to strike me, but I didn’t blink and I didn’t move and to everyone amazement he looked away first.

‘Run boy, tell them I took him.’

I remember standing there feeling so small and so helpless, but I was flat out stubborn even at that age and I just stood in front of Heyes daring them to touch him.

Finally the boy, I guess he was about 15, pushed me aside and swung Heyes up over the back of his horse and took off.

One of my worse traits is I tend to act first and think later. It was no different then as I took off running after them. My Pa and Uncle were Kansas City and the last thing I wanted to do was to have those men double back and lead them to my Mother and Aunt and Sister. Besides Heyes needed me and the fact I was ten and outnumbered 20 to 1 didn’t enter into it in my way of thinking. We were partners and that had certain responsibilities a man didn’t shirk even if he was just a boy.

*************************

Heyes speaking….

I woke up to find I had been tossed over in a corner with the wagons and chained to a wheel with a manacle about my foot. My head hurt something awful and I leaned over and was sick and thought I was going to die.

“Yankees, can’t take a punch.”

I looked up, it was the boy who had brought the telegram. He was taller than me and had maybe three years on me with a shock of dark hair and not much meat on him.

“Where’s my cousin?” I asked.

“Dead, Captain Anderson shot him cold.”

I felt like I was going to be sick again, “Your lying.”

“Maybe, what’s your name boy?”

“You aren’t no older than me,” I said willing myself to get angry. If Jed was dead they would pay, if he wasn’t then I would need to stay ready.

“15 this September,” the boy said. “Me and my brother riding with Quantrill.”

I felt my blood run cold. Quantrill, William Quantrill. All of Lawrence was talking about our former school teacher and his band of guerillas.

“Gonna show you Kansans,” the boy grinned.

“Dingus!” an older boy yelled. “Just give him the water and let him be!”

The boy scowled, “I ain’t doing nothing Frank!”

“Yea well you ain’t gonna last long if don’t obey orders, Quantrill thinks your too young to be here anyways and so do I.”

“Captain Anderson doesn’t.”

“Yea well he’s a bit preoccupied, that telegram you gave him told him that the womenfolk the Bluecoats took got killed, including his sisters, so you best stay clear of him.”

The older boy walked away and I digested this bit of information.

Suddenly a sharp kick to the ribs made me wrench over in agony.

“Damn Yankee, killing womenfolk!” Dingus swore and I rolled to avoid another punch.

The assault went on for several minutes until he got tired and his rage subsided and he walked away tossing down my water.

I curled up in a ball next to the wagon wheel. My hands were shaking and I was aching from the beating as I searched my pockets and finally pulled out the two nails I had taken to carrying with me. And carefully and painfully I turned my attention to the manacle’s lock.

********************************

Kid speaking….

I arrived in time to see the beating end and any fear I had left in me dissolved as the older boy took advantage of Heyes’s imprisonment and head wound.

Heyes as a rule is a dangerous fighter, even with opponents bigger than him. He has this way of anticipating how a man will swing and always manages not to be there. He also can spot a weakness in a man and hone in on it like nothing I ever seen.

It was this skill that kept me alive most of my childhood in the home. He talks about me getting in front of him, well guess who I learned it from.

I scrambled over under the wagon and come up behind him.

“Han!”

He turned and I winced, he didn’t look good.

“I’m gonna get you out of here Han.”

“No, Jed, too many, I’ll get this off and sneak away.”

“It will be clear through the field past the crik,” I told him.

“How, they got men everywhere?”

“Cause I’m gonna make it clear. Horse be there, got it tied.”

“You stole a horse!” Heyes said and I wasn’t sure if he was mad or proud.

“Better, stole me a gun!”

He tried to stop me but I was gone. I knew Heyes could get that manacle off. That was his latest trick he had picked up, opening things, hadn’t run into a lock yet he couldn’t pick. Up to now it had been a game, but suddenly it was a life and death skill.

******************************

Heyes speaking….

My cousin is flat out mad. Twenty of them, guerillas and doesn’t even occur to him that maybe the odds were a bit against him. But even then I had faith in him, if he said it would be clear it would be and so would the horse. I clicked open the lock and waited and prayed my legs would let me run.

It came ten minutes later. I never did quite get out of Jed how exactly he set the entire camp on fire, but on fire it was. Men were screaming and running, shoving off blankets and coats and trying to calm horses. It was pandemonium and I slid under the wagon and hobbled as fast as I could across the creek to the corn field where sure enough a horse was waiting.

A moment later Jed was there, looking way too pleased with himself.

“Grandpa was right Han! Moonshine burns real fine!

Groaning I moved to pull him on the horse when suddenly I froze.

“Stop right there Yankees,” it was Dingus, his gun out and he swaggered towards us. “Gonna kill you both for this.”

Jed just stood up and faced him. “You hurt my cousin, you gonna answer to me for that,” and he pulled a gun from his belt.

I groaned, beating the entire Reb army had gone to his head.

I reacted without thinking charging the horse forward pulling Jed up as the boy moved to fire. We raced past him as the gun went off missing us and the horse and I heard Jed yell back about Rebs not being able to hit the broad side of barn. And then we were clear and I felt sick again and Jed had to hold me to keep from falling off..

We made it to my farm first, Jed’s mom was there as they always stayed together when the men folk had to leave. I thought sure I was gonna get a whooping, but my Aunt began crying and my mother told Jed to take the horse and lead it away and cover the tracks.

My father got home a day later. I overheard the story of the building collapsing with the women in Kansas City, he said the Union soldiers knew the building wasn’t safe. He also told me as soon as I was better we were gonna have a long talk about taking stupid chances.

Never did get chance, the raid happened 6 days later and he was dead.

*************************

Heyes speaking….

“I was wondering when we might cross paths,” I said quietly.

“You think they are here for the same job we are?”

“Yea,” I said. “Also think it might be neighborly to introduce ourselves.”

Kid nodded and I began crossing the room to the table as Kid signaled Wheat and the other boys. We didn’t know how many of their gang was present and it was best to have them stand ready.

It wasn’t until that moment I realized how angry Kid was. Kid’s temper tends to run to hot flashes where he explodes and its over. He doesn’t simmer and he’s lousy at holding grudges unlike me. But I suddenly caught a glimpse of his face in the smoky light and I didn’t know him. He had remembered too.

“Well, well heard you boys were in town,” the dark haired man at the table grinned putting down his cigar. “Have a seat, only professional curtsey. I’m Jesse and this is my brother Frank, cousin Cole.”

“I don’t think so,” Kid said calmly removing his glove and I heard the room go quiet as everyone realized.

“Well that ain’t real friendly of ya and us being neighbors and all, your Kansas right?”

“Yea,” I said pushing back my hat. “Lawrence.”

I saw him swallow as a thousand images passed over his eyes. His brother swung down his whiskey and stood.

“Reckon then we’ll be leaving. My boys will be out of town in a few minutes.”

“Frank we ain’t going nowhere,” Jesse said angry.

“Yea we are,” Frank said with a weariness and a regret I accepted. “Gentlemen.”

He moved past us and after a moment his cousin got up and followed clearly shaken. He had heard about Lawrence and he had heard about us.

“Wasn’t interested in that train no how,” Jesse said brushing past us and accidentally bumping me and tipped his hat with a cocky smile.

I heard the room exhale and I realized I had joined it.

******************************

I won big that night, couldn’t lose it seemed. Wheat came and verified they had gone and I fell into the poker game desperate to forget and determined not to sleep for fear the dreams would come a calling.

Kid finally gave up on me and said he was going to bed. I nodded and moved to pour another drink and that’s when I realized my cousin’s bottle was still full. He hadn’t touched it all evening.

I felt the cold knot in my stomach return. Kid never touched liquor when we had a job or he might have to shoot.

I pushed my chair back and hurried across the room for the door.

The street was empty, dawn just coming up. Desperate I looked around and then I heard it, two quick shots coming from the alley behind the general store and I started to run.

I swung around the corner gun drawn to see Cole Younger holding his hand sitting dazed against a broken box he had landed on. Jesse wasn’t doing so well. Kid hit him hard, well into a beating and when the man dropped broken Kid merely picked him back up and hit him again.

“Jed!”

My voice was the only thing that reached him and almost surprised he let the man fall unconscious to stare at me, his knuckles bloody from the pounding he had given the man.

“Heyes,” he said.

“Came back?”

“Knew he would.”

“Knew or hoped?” I asked.

“Owed him, maybe both.”

“Tried to draw?”

“Tried, Reb never could hit anything,” Kid said and moved to walk past me.

I caught his arm, “Jed? Thanks.”

“Warned him then. May take a while, but I get around to things.”

I smiled, “Yea I guess you. Got a bottle in the room, buy you a drink?”

“Yea, am feeling a bit parched.”

He turned to walk away and I glanced back, “You keep beating up legends your gonna get us a reputation.”

Kid looked back, “That ain’t a legend.”

Historical Note: Captain William Anderson aka Bloody Bill was one of the best known and most feared of all Missouri Confederate guerillas. He rode with Quantrill on his attack on Lawrence and then quarrelling with Quantrill formed his own guerilla band. He is infamously best known for the massacre and battle of Centralia, Missouri on September 27, 1864 where he and his ruthless band of marauders showed no mercy to the town raiding homes and stores and, murdering and raping and eventually burning down the town.

Included in his band was a young 14 year old he took under his wing upon leaving Quantrill named Jesse James.